The adoption of remote or virtual court hearing is still being debated in Nigeria as the myriads of challenges posed by the innovation infuses even more fear for stakeholders. However, abandoning a progressive innovation may only hinder future innovation as the law may trail behind innovations habitually. There is therefore a need to reassess the existing framework for remote or virtual court hearing in Nigeria and consider necessary reforms. This paper seeks to explore the legal framework for virtual court hearing in Nigeria whilst elaborating on the rules governing virtual court hearing in other jurisdictions. The qualitative methodology is adopted in a bid to derive lessons from these jurisdictions and recommend legal reforms and/or amendments of laws for the proper functioning of Remote Court Proceedings (RCP) in Nigeria. The paper found that there needs to be a deliberate attempt to define open courts to include virtual courts in Nigeria whilst legal amendments are required in the Evidence Act, Constitution, Administration of Criminal Justice Laws to enable fair hearing during RCP.

Keywords: Remote Court, Virtual Court, RCP, Proceedings, Technology