Serious sexual abuse cases pilot programme run at Whangārei court hailed a success

Chief District Court Judge Jan-Marie Doogue has praised a pilot held in Whangārei for improving the management of serious sexual violence cases.

A pilot programme run in Whangārei and Auckland District Courts has been hailed a success at improving the management of serious sexual violence cases and has almost halved the waiting time for such cases to go to trial.

Chief District Court Judge Jan-Marie Doogue said the pilot would continue while its final evaluation was completed, assessed and the next steps were determined.

The evaluation report is expected to be delivered in June and final decisions on the pilot's future could take another few months. The judge-led pilot has in the Whangārei and Auckland District Courts since December 2016.

Designed to reduce delays and improve the court experience for all participants, the pilot court proactively applies best-practice trial management to all serious (or Category 3) sexual violence cases to be heard by a jury.

Chief Judge Doogue said it was already clear the pilot cases were reaching trial sooner and continuous monitoring through the pilot's two-and-a-half years has demonstrated how intensive case management can significantly reduce timeframes.

Nearly 500 cases have entered the pilot. The average timeframe for those that have so far proceeded to trial and returned a verdict is just under 10 months – about half the time commonly experienced in the District Court.

The independent evaluation will analyse and confirm the detail of the improved timeliness, and drill further into the impacts and benefits, as well as wider implications for court resourcing. Decisions about whether to extend or discontinue the pilot will be made in conjunction with the Ministry of Justice.

In the meantime pilot processes will continue to be used in Auckland and Whangārei and Chief Judge Doogue hopes the innovations the pilot has fostered can eventually go wider.

"For now, it is business as usual for the pilot. But the entire District Court has learned from its work, and whatever the pilot's future, I am confident its general approaches will become a permanent feature of the District Court over time. They stand to improve the court experience for all court participants," she said.

The approaches include taking a uniform approach to pre-trial case management, having dedicated case managers where resources permit, enhancing the judicial training on sexual violence, and adopting specially developed best-practice guidelines.

"Together these measures have created a gentler process with more humane timeframes for everyone involved in what can often be difficult or distressing proceedings, especially for child and vulnerable witnesses," she said.

Chief Judge Doogue leads the pilot with support from a governance board of senior trial judges and the Ministry of Justice. She said the pilot cases were run within existing law, and fair trial rights remained paramount.