I have personally written to the Chief about the wasting of time by failing to appropriate schedule litigants for hearing. Instead of requiring all litigants and their lawyers to show up at 9:30 am and hearing the lawyers first, then the self-reps, with regular interruptions, the Downing Centre could allocate groups to timeslots. There is little respect for litigants' time.
Moreover, magistrates are generally not disposed to deal with complex matters efficiently, using a combination of "kick this to another magistrate" or "let's deal with this after lunch" or "the other side needs more time, I'll grant that adjournment".
This approach pays no respect to the mounting costs litigants pay every 6 minutes, nor to litigants' time.
I have seen similar behaviour in the District Court of NSW.
Personally, given the monotony of Local Court cases, I would have expected that a novel or complex issue might be of interest to a trained legal mind that would otherwise be focused on the question of whether to give a section, section 10 or a big fat fine.
And yet, somehow, the hard cases are required to arrive early, and then made to sit around, waiting for the judicial officer to turn their mind to the question at the end of the day, when natural decision fatigue, physical exhaustion and crankiness has set in.
We can do better, Chief.
Madges under pressure … NSW’s chief beak Graeme Henson unhappy with slow government response to Local Court crisis … Pleading for more resources on multiple occasions … New appointments filling retirements … 10 more Madges needed … Ginger Snatch reports
Not enough beaks to man the barricades, a massive workload, and stress-related health problems for Madges.
“There has been no real response from government,” added Graeme, other than advice from the attorney general that he understands the issue.
The chief magistrate had warned in 2018 that the Local Court had “reached the limit of its capacity to sustain its performance against its time standards without an increase in judicial resources”.
A year later the court was pressing the government for 10 more magistrates, with emphasis on country regions and the coronial jurisdiction.
Gra-Gra went on to explain his court’s crushing caseload dealing with 96 percent of all criminal prosecutions and over 90 percent of all civil litigation in New South Wales.
To December 2019 there were 7,711 more criminal prosecutions than in 2018, bringing the total volume of crime cases to 346,930
Domestic violence rose by 1,922 in the year to 41,442 – with no additional magistrates to handle the load.
“I have little hesitation in stating that in terms of both volume and levels of complexity of matters the Local Court of New South Wales is the busiest jurisdiction in the Commonwealth,” Gra wrote.
In Victoria, by way of comparison, the 2018-2019 year saw 151,765 criminal cases commenced in the Magistrates Court, against 346,930 in the NSW Local Court.
And Victoria has 122 Madges to handle the criminal and civil caseload, while NSW has 118 doing the same.
“Where no relief comes from the government to the pressure on the court it becomes necessary for the court itself to take steps to ease the pressures of presiding in court everyday.”
So the Chief Madge arranged for all his beaks to take off one day in every two months to spend in chambers catching-up with reserved decisions and “related activities”.
The price of that is increased delays in the finalisation of cases.
Henson is also pressing for a mid-year vacation for magistrates, to “preserve health and wellbeing”.
In a final sally, he complained that government is “more than content to amend legislation” so as to direct cases to the Local Court, rather than the District Court – without a thought about the impact on magistrates.
As it happens Attorney General Mark Speakman SC must have heard the noises, for earlier this month he announced five new appointees – four women and one man.
Details here.
The AG’s headline was that the additional appointments make the court’s gender balance almost 50:50 male and female. There are now 69 women magistrates out of a total 140.
However, halfway through the announcement he said the “new magistrates replace retiring judicial officers”. No net increase.
Other sources say there were 13 appointments to the Local Court in the 2019 year just reviewed by Henson – however it appears this included “two additional appointments” to help handle increased criminal matters.
If this is deciphered it seems that of the 13, there was only a net gain of two new magistrates.
Meanwhile, money is being lavished on Local Court upgrades, including $9 million in Covid stimulus funding to improve 62 regional courthouses.
And another $54 million is being ploughed into a three year “digital transformation” of the NSW court system.
The AG gave a beautifully crafted statement to your correspondent:
“NSW is fortunate to have one of the most efficient magistrates’ courts in Australia, topping the country for finalisations of criminal cases within 12 months (98 per cent in 2019-20) and clearing criminal case backlogs …
While I have periodic discussions with the Chief Magistrate about issues in his jurisdiction, resourcing for the Local Court remains under review as part of the budget process.”
Here’s a blast from Henson in 2012 in which he gets stuck into the DG of the AG’s department, Little Laurie Glanfield.