Defendants who appear in court via videolink are being ‘treated differently’ from those who appear in person, solicitors have warned, with a much higher proportion going unrepresented.

The pilot virtual court, whereby defendants make their first appearance in court via videolink from a police station, has been running since May, linking 16 London stations with Camberwell Green Magistrates Court.

Greg Stewart, a defence representative at local pilot implementation meetings in London, said: ‘Some weeks the vast majority of defendants are unrepresented and every week the majority of them are unrepresented. We predicted this as the police were never going to encourage defendants to get a lawyer.’

He said judges appeared happy to deal with unrepresented defendants over the videolink, but were more reluctant to do so when a defendant was unrepresented in court, even where the charges were more serious. ‘This illustrates our point that those on the videolink are treated differently,’ he said.

Shabana Fazal, of London firm GT Stewart, said: ‘There’s no way defendants using the videolink are getting the same treatment as those physically present, and [those who are represented] aren’t getting enough time with their solicitors before their cases are called on… The process is more lengthy than normal and hard for defendants to understand.’

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said the full rollout of the pilot was only completed in August, but a detailed evaluation would be published in September 2010. About 110 cases have been heard through the pilot so far.