The intermediary role
The primary intermediary role is to facilitate effective communication between a court user with communication needs, and the court. We act as impartial officers of the court, providing advice, recommendations and one-to-one support to help ensure the individual can participate effectively in proceedings.
How intermediaries work depends on lots of different factors, particularly the nature of the case, the intermediary role in that case (determined by the judge) and the individual needs of the court user. In every case, however, intermediaries work to support the effective participation of that individual in legal proceedings.
What supporting effective participation means in practice may look different for different court users. It may mean supporting the individual to:
- ‘Follow the thrust of proceedings’ during hearings
- Attend to, process, understand and retain legal advice, to ensure they are able to give informed instructions
- Understand key evidence in the case (including expert evidence)
- Give clear instructions to their legal team
- Understand the positions of other parties and the possible outcomes in a case
- Give their best evidence by ensuring questions can be understood and answered clearly
Person-centred assistance
How the above will be achieved will, again, look different for each court user. Each person we assist has a unique profile of communication strengths and needs, and will be best assisted by different strategies and adjustments. This is one reason why an intermediary assessment prior to proceedings is so important, helping us understand how best to support each person, before assisting at court.
While an intermediary assessment will provide crucial information about someone’s communication profile, it’s also important to remember that this assessment is only a ‘snapshot’. A court user’s needs may differ in an emotive, high pressure court setting, where communication demands are far greater. For this reason, the recommendations we make and the strategies we use are person-centred and responsive. Throughout proceedings, we provide evolving advice and recommendations to legal representatives and the court (often through written judge updates), and adapt the strategies we use to respond to observed need.
Where we work
Intermediaries work in a wide range of justice settings. We most commonly assist in criminal and family proceedings, assisting defendants, witnesses, respondents, intervenors and other court users with communication needs. We also provide intermediary assistance in other settings including immigration and employment tribunals, probation hearings, the Court of Protection, police interviews and others. If you are unsure whether Communicourt can assist in a case you are involved with, please contact admin@communicourt.co.uk or call 0121 663 0931 for more information.
Communicourt is the largest provider of HMCTS-approved intermediaries, with a team of 70+ full time, salaried staff operating across England and Wales. This allows us to provide national coverage, and we are often able to provide assistance in ‘last minute’ cases.
When do intermediaries assist?
Intermediaries can assist at any stage in legal proceedings, subject to approval by the court. In family proceedings, for example, we may attend pre-hearing conferences, Case Management Hearings, Issues Resolution Hearings, parenting assessments, guardian interviews, Fact Finding Hearings and Final Hearings. In criminal cases, we can also attend conferences, preliminary hearings and trials, as well as Pre-Sentencing Interviews and Sentencing Hearings.
When we attend is subject to the needs of the individual and the approval of the court in each case. For example, in some cases, a Case Management Hearing may be short, administrative and straightforward, and the person (depending on their communication profile) may be able to follow without intermediary assistance. Equally, a defendant may have particular difficulty with time concepts and processing lengthy ‘stretches’ of verbal information. They would benefit greatly from intermediary assistance at a sentencing hearing, in order to understand the sentence and any ‘rules’ they must follow.
The intermediary report can be a helpful tool in deciding at what stages an intermediary will be required. This report will provide detailed information about the court user’s communication profile, and will typically provide information regarding the assistance and adjustments recommended at each stage of proceedings.
How do intermediaries assist?
Again, the strategies and recommendations an intermediary will use and make to support a court user’s participation will varying considerably, depending on the court user’s communication profile. No individual will have the same profile of communication strengths and difficulties, and there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach. However, there are some common strategies which an intermediary will have in their toolkit. The following is by no means an exhaustive list, but an intermediary may assist by:
- Conducting detailed assessment of an individual’s communication profile, documenting findings and (where needs are identified) presenting bespoke recommendations to support their participation to the court
- Simplifying, breaking down and recapping verbal information throughout proceedings (in real time in hearings and at other stages, e.g., in legal conferences)
- Monitoring attention and emotional regulation, recommending and implementing strategies to support in these areas
- Checking understanding, using a range of approaches, to identify exactly what the individual has or has not understood
- Providing feedback on and monitoring questions to be put to the individual in evidence, to ensure they can be clearly understood and clearly responded to
- Using visual aids to explain complex concepts or detailed information
- Creating easy read resources, such as summaries of key information from hearings (in a ‘court diary’) or easy read versions of key documents
Making a referral
You can use our online portal to make a referral to Communicourt. Below you will find a quick guide to our referrals process.
