Steve Cullen: lawyer responds to Chief District Court Judge's plan to address court backlog

There's increased support for efforts to trim court waiting times.

The Chief District Court Judge has introduced protocols to speed proceedings, including time targets based on a crime's seriousness.

Lawyer Steve Cullen says about 81 percent of cases meet targets, against a goal of 90 percent.

He says setting up some cases can be a challenge.

"You're dealing with people in the criminal sphere who often have reasons to opt for delay, whether it be the fact that they've got other cases on foot, or they've got their own personal issues that mean they don't want the matter progressed."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
On another subject altogether.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
The Chief District Court Judge has a plan for dealing
to the backlog that we have in the courts at
the moment. He's introducing time frame goals to try to
speed things up. So he's going to divide charges into
a bunch of categories, and each category has a time
frame that it must now be dealt with in Steve
Cullen is a criminal lawyer and is with us.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Now.

Speaker 3 (00:18):
Hey Steve, oh good afternoon.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Can you support this idea?

Speaker 3 (00:22):
Oh, it's a really good idea. We have had our
charges divided up into categories to quite some time camel
with a Criminal Procedure Act. What we have now are
guidelines been distributed by the Chief District Court Judge saying well,
let's try and work towards speeding everything up. Yet again,
they're done phenomenally well in a post COVID world. We're
up the eighty one percent of cases at the moment
comply with these guidelines that the Chief District Court Judge

(00:44):
is issued, and the target now is to get that
up to ninety percent.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
So the least serious category, category one is where there
is no risk of imprisonment and the example use it.

Speaker 3 (00:54):
May be on the Yes, it may be on the books.
For example, you may have a three month next month
gyms imprisonment such as aplies to drink driving in various
other what used to be called summary matters, but nobody
ever is going to be jailed for a first offense
of that type. Yeah, those matters are dealt.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
With, and that has to be dealt with within six months, right,
And the example being used is Kerry Allen's case. But
Kerry Allen's case wasn't dealt with within six months, was it?

Speaker 3 (01:17):
No? And the difficulty is you're hurting cats. You're dealing
with people in the criminal sphere who often have reasons
to want to delay, whether it be the tact that
they've got other cases on foot, or they've got their
own personal issues that mean they don't want the matter progressed.
There are a lot of complexities and that's why the
judge said, has honor said that, well, there may be
some difficulties in some cases, let's try and work towards

(01:38):
speeding them up.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
Is that so? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:40):
I was going to say, I mean, he obviously doesn't
have control of everything what Kerry Allen did in the
delaying in that particular care case.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
Is that unusual? That's not the norm.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
No, that's not unusual at all. There's multiplicity of reasons
why people can te let them have a new job
and they don't want to be disqualified immediately when they're
only two or three months into a new job and
come and crying and say I need to buy a
little bit of time zone. So it's normal, it's normal
to have part Yes.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
Well then how do you get around that?

Speaker 3 (02:08):
Well, you you implement protocols, you push people, and you
just try and prod people in the appropriate cases.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
Okay, Category two offenses which carry a maximum of under
two years in jail. That's dealt with the nine months
Category three, where the prison sentence can be over two years.
Like somebody, I don't quite serious stuff, that's fifteen months.
It's fifteen months reasonable to be dealing with potentially something
as big as they.

Speaker 3 (02:30):
Yes, because those are heading down the jury trial paths regularly.
They're not always, but they can be, and that inevitably
causes further delace because it's more complext Do we mean.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
Do we need to be doing something similar in the
High Court?

Speaker 3 (02:44):
Well, the High Court is doing quite well. I think
it seems to be keeping up with what was a
COVID backlog. They've pushed them through. They had the jurisdiction
to move some categories of cases down to the Districtorden
fetem months for example, used to clog the High Court terribly,
though they're dealt with routinely district court. It's to do
with the judicial resources, the court resources, and what priorities

(03:06):
are given to what range of cases.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
I wonder, Steve, I mean all of these. A goal
is a lofty thing, but it's utterly pointless unless there's
an incentive or a punishment. I wonder if we should
be introducing one of those two.

Speaker 3 (03:19):
Well, the difficulty is if you're punishing the client often
they've got no money.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
If you can to punish them with a little bit
of an extra bit a tire in the slammer.

Speaker 3 (03:29):
Well then you've got to spend enormous amount of money
building more prisons to try and it's counterproductive. We're already
doing that, saying we need a caravan a stick. I
hear what you're saying, Steve.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
Thank you, I really appreciate your time. As always that
Steve Cullen, criminal lawyer.

Speaker 3 (03:44):
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