BAsed on Govindia's latest post in the trial thread, it seems to me that this is a rather arse-about-face way of running a trial.
I would have thought that the court would schedule the trial, and the defendant would need to appoint counsel who could attend the trial at the time and the place set by the court, not say "I'm sorry, my defence team cannot be on IRC, so the trial will have to be on the forum...
It has been known for ages that the trial would be on IRC. Why has he appointed counsel who cannot attend the trial, unless the aim is to delay or derail?