During the first 6 weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic the hearings of (urgent) family cases continued with the use of telephones, Skype or in hybrid format. This created all kinds of participation challenges. Anne Janssen examines to what extent litigants were able to effectively participate during these hearings. To do so she applies McKeever’s remote justice framework, the so-called ‘ladder of legal participation’ to these specific litigants.