Part 2: Courts, tribunals and coroners Chapter 2: Online procedure Section 19: Rules for online procedure in courts and tribunals
This section provides in subsection (1) that there are to be rules, to be known as Online Procedure Rules, which, for specified proceedings (meaning proceedings specified in regulations made by the Lord Chancellor under section 20) require parties to civil, family or tribunal proceedings to use electronic means to start proceedings or take steps in them (i.e. online procedure). Rules may provide for all or any part of the procedure for conducting proceedings online, including starting and defending proceedings and participating in hearings. Subsection (2) provides that these rules are to be called Online Procedure Rules; subsection (3) provides for objectives to which regard must be had whenever the power to make Online Procedure Rules is exercised, including the objective of securing that practice and procedure under the rules are accessible and fair (for which subsection (4) specifically provides that regard must be had to those who need support to take part in any way using electronic means.) Subsection (5) provides for different rules to be able to be made for different kinds of proceedings.
	Subsection (6) requires provision to be made in Online Procedure Rules for litigants who are not legally represented to be able to choose to take by non-electronic means steps which they would otherwise be required to take by electronic means. Subsection (7) provides that Online Procedure Rules, where they require a person to use electronic means, must also provide that a court or tribunal may direct the use instead of non-electronic means. Subsection (8) makes clear that Online Procedure Rules may provide for matters to be determined by electronic means as a result of steps taken, or failed to be taken, by the parties by electronic means (so that, for example, a matter might be determined by electronic means in default of a response which a party was required to provide by electronic means).
	Subsections (9) to (11) provide for circumstances in which the rules are not to apply or are to cease to apply to proceedings so enabling, for example, particularly complex cases to be transferred out of the online procedure to the appropriate court or tribunal and so become subject to the civil, family, or tribunal procedural rules (‘the applicable standard rules’) as appropriate; and for the rules to be able to provide for alternative procedures to accommodate those cases to which the Online Procedure Rules would otherwise cease to apply. For example, this might apply where a party might not have access to the requisite IT, so creating a parallel procedure which may still be subject to those features of the online procedure that are readily available to the parties. Subsection (12) permits rules to provide for separate proceedings to be taken in a different court than the normal one and for separate proceedings to be taken together (so that, for example, certain housing-related matters might be brigaded together in a single set of proceedings before a single court or tribunal rather than having to be spread across one or more courts and/or tribunals). Subsection (13) requires that the Online Procedure Rules may not provide for proceedings to be taken outside the jurisdiction where the proceedings are brought. It also requires that the Online Procedure Rules may not provide for appeals to take place in the same court or tribunal as the decision being appealed against. Subsection (14) makes it clear that this section is subject to section 21 (which allows the Lord Chancellor to provide in regulations for parties to have the option of proceeding under Online Procedure Rules or the "applicable standard rules"; and subsection (15) introduces Schedule 3, which makes provision about practice directions in relation to proceedings governed by Online Procedure Rules.