When a victim below the age set in the provision is examined as a witness through a relay facility, where must that facility be located, and when may the court choose a different place?
General information · Not legal advice
Material to check
The practice file for this exercise holds the record of the video recording the provision refers to and the paper showing where it was made, the victim's own statement of where they would prefer to attend, and any court paper designating the relay facility.
These are types of material to look for, not evidence already verified by PRO SE.
Where readings differ
One reading takes the default rule with its qualifier: where a victim below the age set in the provision is examined through a relay facility, the facility is the place where the video recording was made, but only 'absent special circumstances', so the court may depart from that place where such circumstances exist.
Another reading looks at the cases the provision sets out: the court may designate the relay facility where the victim has expressed a wish to attend somewhere else, or where the place of the video recording is a facility of a police station or another investigative agency, and the court 'may' designate rather than must.
Your judgment
If the victim states no particular preference and the video recording was also made at a court rather than an investigative agency, what in the file would show special circumstances justifying a different place?
PRO SE does not make this decision or keep a case record on this public site.When to reconsider
We look at this again if the provision is amended to change the default place or the exceptions, or if a decision clarifies what counts as special circumstances permitting the court to designate a relay facility elsewhere.