Nicole McKee: Associate Justice Minister on the number of active civil cases dropping by 20%

The Government says its changes to the court system are making a real difference.  

It has released figures showing civil cases in the District Court have dropped 20% in the year to July to over 10,200.  

The Disputes Tribunal cleared 900 more cases over the same period.  

Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee told Mike Hosking there are fewer cases coming to civil court.  

And she says the cases which are coming through are being resolved more quickly.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Into the court system. Reform seems to be getting some

(00:02):
real attraction. In the latter stats of this Morning Show,
court backlogs are being sliced into civil cases in the
District Court dropped twenty percent in the year to July.
Disputes Tribunal cleared nine hundred more cases, while the current
is court cut active cases by fifteen percent. And Nicole McKey,
Associate Minister of Justice of Courses back with this morning
to you.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Good morning, Mike.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Let's start with the District Court, specifically new cases decreasing
seven percent. Is that less crime therefore less court time?

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Well, yes, I mean there'sn't. The District Court civil jurisdiction
means that we've got a seven percent decrease, that's to
twenty four thousand, seven hundred cases, but we've completed eight percent,
which is twenty seven thousand, three hundred, so we are
completing more than what's coming in. And this is a

(00:48):
really good thing because it means that we've got a
thirty six percent decrease in the number of cases or
the time being taken. And that's huge, Mike, because you
know when I came in, it was three hundred thirty
days to complete a civil case. I mean, that's huge,
and we've managed to drop it down to two hundred
and eleven. Now, in my mind, that's way too much still,

(01:11):
but a thirty percent decrease is really really good, and
this is because the Registry and the judiciary are now
looking at effective measures on how to fix these problems
so that people can move through that system so much faster.
And this is a massive effort by them. They should
be congratulated for it.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
So that's them working more efficiently. So that's an increase
in productivity in other words, as opposed to just simply
more money and more people.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
Correct. I mean, we've had to put more money, more
people into the coroner's court, for example, but those delays
were huge. I mean, we've never had the sort of
delays that we've had within the coroner's Court. But by
instigating the four relief coroners, the new eight associate coroners
and clinical advisors, we've managed to also drop new cases

(01:55):
there and get that fifteen percent decline in people waiting
to find out what's happened to their loved ones. And
I mean that is a really big effort by the
coroner's court as well. I remember when I came in
an opposition, we had one family waiting eight years to
go through the coroner's court, so to have relief where
we've only got five thousand cases in there, we're down

(02:16):
to numbers not seen since twenty twenty. Massive effort again
by the Registry.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
Good Dispatch Tribunal nine hundred more cases. Is that resource
or we're just more efficient again.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
We're being more efficient. We're looking at how do we
go after the target the cases which are taking so
long to go through and actually manage them more effectively
so that we can complete them. So again, it's not
so much about the money, it's about targeting efficiencies and
the judiciary and the Registry. I'm going to keep saying
this might because they're the ones at the front line

(02:50):
that are making the changes that show that they can
fix this, fix it well and make our communities happier
in what can be a really horrible place for so
many of them.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
Isn't it amazing what you can do when you actually
set out to do something, Nicole McKee, the Associate Minister
of Justice, the good numbers, aren't they? For More from
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