The CAS will not hold any in-person hearings until at least May 1 ©Getty Images

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) will not hold any in-person hearings until May 1 at the earliest in response to the coronavirus pandemic, raising the possibility of delays to cases including Russia's dispute with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

In a statement, the CAS said it had encouraged arbitrators and parties to have hearings by video conference or cancel them altogether, and consider evidence based on written submissions.

CAS secretary general Matthieu Reeb conceded to insidethegames that staging hearings, considered vital in the arbitration process, by video was "not the best solution".

"When we have a lot of witnesses or experts present who need to testify, it is hard to do anything on the video, the quality is not always there and the sound is not always clear," Reeb said.

"You see the face of the person testifying, you see if there is some hesitation, their body language, if the guy is sweating…

"Arbitrators prefer to be in person with the parties but we need to find some good solutions.

"If there are no witnesses or experts, we can just waive the hearing and the council presents the submissions and final arguments in writing."

CAS secretary general Matthieu Reeb said the court would consider solutions to limit the impact of the virus on its proceedings ©Getty Images
CAS secretary general Matthieu Reeb said the court would consider solutions to limit the impact of the virus on its proceedings ©Getty Images

The CAS said hearings in cases where video conferences are not possible must be postponed until May 2020 or later and conceded it may have to extend the prohibition of in-person proceedings beyond that date.

Russia's appeal against a four-year period of sanctions imposed by WADA as punishment for the manipulation of the Moscow Laboratory data is among the highest-profile cases to have been registered at the CAS in recent months.

A hearing in the case has not yet been scheduled and was not expected to take place before May.

Hearings affected by the CAS decision in light of the COVID-19 outbreak include Iran's appeal against a ban from the International Judo Federation, which had been set for April 8.

The COVID-19 virus has so far killed more than 7,000 people and infected over 186,000 worldwide.