When may a hearing be opened to the public, and when must it be kept closed whatever anyone has asked for?
General information · Not legal advice
Material to check
In a practice file we read the party's application for publicity and any paper showing it was made, the hearing officer's own record of finding publicity necessary, and the materials describing whose legitimate interest or which aspect of the public interest is said to be at risk.
These are types of material to look for, not evidence already verified by PRO SE.
Where readings differ
One reading takes the two gateways as alternatives and leaves the choice to the hearing officer: a hearing may be made public where the party applies for publicity or where the hearing officer recognises it as necessary, so neither a party's application nor the officer's finding compels publicity.
Another reading turns on the proviso, which is a bar rather than a discretion: where there is a likelihood of seriously harming the public interest or a third party's legitimate interest, the hearing must not be public, and the provision does not say who judges that likelihood or how it is to be recorded.
Your judgment
Where a hearing officer refuses publicity on this ground, what fact in the materials distinguishes a marked concern of harm from a slight one?
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 name who determines the harm the proviso describes or to define how marked that concern must be, or if a court decision explains how far a hearing officer's finding of necessity must yield to that bar.