Justice Delayed !

When we are arrested and charged with a crime we have the expectation that we will be promptly put before a court and the matter decided.   If we are convicted we will suffer some sort of punishment, but if we are found not guilty we can resume our former lifestyle.

That is not the present experience here in New South Wales.  It could be months - or even years before we see the inside of a courtroom.  Even worse, our liberty all depends on the matter of bail. If bail is refused we become a " remand " prisoner and languish in a state prison until the case is put on a court docket for trial.   In many cases the time served will be far greater than the sentence for whatever we are accused.

The workload imposed on the state's District Court caused a senior judge with twenty years experience to warn that she feared for the welfare of her colleagues on the bench.  If pressure was not lifted it was likely that some would be driven to suicide as had happened in Victoria.   The NSW Criminal court dealt with 3023 more defendants in 2017 than the previous year - according to the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics.   The police had gained tough new powers and more sophisticated crime fighting technology had increased  the numbers of people charged with serious offences.

The NSW Attorney General has announced that seven new District Court judges will be appointed, bringing the number of permanent judges in this state to 75, the highest ever.   One of the limitations this will expose is the number of courts available in which to conduct sittings.  Additional judges would need a four year funding  package to pay for the judges, Crown prosecutors and senior lawyers at Legal Aid that would combine to meet the increased cost involved.

Unfortunately, the legal system operates on what used to be termed " bankers hours ".  Sittings rarely commence before 10 am and conclude by mid afternoon.  With extra judges we need to consider night courts and courts that continue through the weekends.  The courts are specially constructed buildings and we need to extend their operating hours to bring the justice system up to speed.

More importantly, those long delays are not delivering justice.   The memories of witnesses fade over time  and testimony delivered years later is often unconvincing.   This is exacerbated by the legal profession and their habit of " judge shopping " -  seeking delay to get the case off the docket of an unsympathetic judge and reallocated in the hope of a more favourable ending.

This ponderous weight of the law is reflective of an earlier, gentler age when the courts ambled along at their own pace.  We live in a faster commercial world and any form of career interruption can see operational efficiency quickly stagnate.  There is a need for court matter to be settled - quickly. The increase in judge numbers will be a big improvement, provided that courts can be found for additional sittings and these slotted into the judicial calendars.