John MacDonald: Courts backlog: "Good evening Your Honour"

I watched a fair bit of TV when I was growing up. And, probably in my teenage years, one of the shows that was on the box quite a bit was called Night Court.

You remember that show? It was American, of course, as pretty much everything on TV in New Zealand back then was. The original series ran from 1984 ‘til 1992. But I think it might just have been revived.

But the series I’m thinking of and the one you’ll be thinking of - if you can remember it - was set in a criminal court in Manhattan, in New York, where the presiding judge was known as Harry T. Stone.

And I remember thinking at the time how novel it was having court cases at night time.

Now the reason I’m mentioning this TV show from way-back, is that night courts are being suggested today as one way of dealing with the backlog of court cases and hearings in New Zealand at the moment.

Criminal cases, family court cases, coronial cases - they’re all a bit stuck. Or, more importantly, the people involved in all of these processes are stuck.

Delays are across the board throughout the courts system but, to give you an idea, it’s taking as long as two years for criminal trials and family court hearings.

Some of it’s being put down to COVID, of course. Here are some stats for you: Since March 2020 around 144-thousand District Court events and just on 15-hundred High Court events have been adjourned or rescheduled because of the pandemic.

During the first lockdown, 68 percent of appearances couldn't go ahead.

Victims advocate Ruth Money was on Newstalk ZB this morning saying that one of her concerns is that the backlog is actually putting victims off staying in the courts system. Some of them are being told that it’s going to be next year before any court action and for people who have been waiting since 2020 - or even earlier - it’s just too much and so they’re pulling the plug.

And let’s not forget that this sort of situation isn’t great for those accused of committing criminal offending, either.

There are people in prison waiting for court appearances who end up spending more time behind bars than their final sentence time. Which means, if they’re innocent, they’re waiting a very long time to clear their names.

The other part of that, too, is that getting Legal Aid can be tricky for these people because of the backlog and the number of cases the Legal Aid lawyers already have on their books.

And that’s just the criminal court side of things.

There are people waiting as long as five years for a Coroner’s hearing. Which must seem like an eternity and then, when it eventually happens, it must just bring the loss back all over again.

The Family Court is caught up in this mess, as well. Can you imagine waiting two years for a family dispute to make it to court?

And I’m not just thinking about the adults in these cases - I’m thinking about the kids too. In fact, the kids must be the most affected by these Family Court delays, mustn’t they?

So we can agree it’s a hell of a mess. And we can blame COVID or blame governments or blame certain lawyers for making an art form out of dragging things on forever.

Maybe judges too carry a bit of the blame as well - because I've covered a truckload of court hearings and cases and it always seemed to me that judges operate in their own time zone.

Although, if you’ve ever been at a trial you’ll know that judges have a fair bit of information and detail to deal with, and they can have a very hard job keeping things on track during, but maybe they need to change things up a bit given the backlog of cases.

Which takes me back to the Night Court TV show. Perhaps the time has come here in New Zealand for the courts system to drag itself out of the 1950s and, as they say in the retail game, extend its hours.

Because it would seem that the situation isn’t going to improve if the courts keep on running the way they are. And maybe the Night Court TV show isn’t so far-fetched, after all, and extending their hours of operating might help.

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