Case No. IP-2018-000045

9.Mr St Quintin advanced two arguments in his email of 14 May 2021 relating to the Covid Protocol. The first was that a remote handing down of a judgment under the Covid Protocol does not amount to a hearing at which the decision to be appealed was made within the meaning of CPR 52.3(2)(a). The second was that the remote handing down of a judgment under the Covid Protocol either automatically adjourns the CPR 52.3(2)(a) hearing or alternatively in the present case that hearing must be taken to have been adjourned because the court intended a further hearing if the parties were to be unable to agree an order on consequential matters. 10.I do not accept either of these arguments. I can see no rational basis for treating the handing down of a judgment under the Covid-19 Protocol as being different from the handing down of a judgment in open court in relation to permission to appeal. I accept that there was no hearing in the usual sense of the term on 22 April 2021. But even where a judgment is handed down in open court, it is not unusual for the parties to have been informed by the court that they need not attend and that there will be a subsequent hearing of submissions on consequential matters if not agreed, or alternatively that such matters will be decided by the court in writing. In those circumstances there is no hearing in the usual sense when the judgment is handed down. The question is whether there is nonetheless a hearing within the meaning of CPR 52.3(2)(a). If so, in my view there is also a hearing in that sense when a judgment is handed down under the terms of the Covid Protocol.