Joining the virtual hearing

The hearing invite

The day before the hearing, we'll send an email to you and any witnesses with the link to join the hearing. When you click on the link, you join a virtual lobby before we admit you into the hearing.

Make sure MPTS emails are marked as ‘not spam’. If you’ve not received an expected invite by 4pm the day before the hearing, check your ‘spam’ folder first. If you’ve still not received it, please contact us.

Only those individuals that have been sent the hearing link will be admitted to the hearing.

MPTS support

There will be several MPTS staff present during the hearing. They won’t be on video but will be available through audio.

They will make sure the correct participants are present and participating during the hearing and support the tribunal with the administration of the hearing.

Join the virtual hearing

5 minutes before the hearing is due to start, click the link in the invite you have received which says 'click here to join the meeting'.

When asked to sign in, select ‘Join as a guest’ and enter your name and which party you're appearing for, eg Joe Bloggs (Doctor) and then select ‘Join meeting’.

Your witnesses should sign in using the naming convention that you gave them. This is likely to be their title and their anonymised letter, eg Ms A. If your witness needs to change their sign in name, they will need to sign out of Teams (select profile picture at the top of the app and then select 'Sign out'), return to the meeting invite and click the link to join the hearing and then click 'Join as guest'. They will then be able to type their anonymised name.

The witness shouldn’t enter their name unless this has been agreed with us in advance as their name will be available to all participants. This may compromise their identity.

Switch your video and audio on before joining the hearing. You're placed in a virtual lobby before we admit you and will see the message 'Someone in the meeting should let you in soon'.

We can't communicate with you through the virtual hearing while you are waiting in the lobby. If there are any delays to proceedings commencing, we'll contact you.

You'll be joined to the hearing when the tribunal is ready.

If you haven't been added to the hearing more than 10 minutes after the expected time, please contact us.