Justice at last after district court blitz

A blitz to cut the backlog of hearings at the Auckland District Court has resulted in a 30 per cent drop in criminal cases waiting to be heard.

Courts Minister Rick Barker released figures showing that in June last year there were 5980 criminal summary cases waiting to be heard, but by November that had been reduced to 4154 cases.

The reduction was the result of a seven-week blitz at the court which involved a focus on criminal hearings and more judge time.

The court ran its usual four courts and had three more for defended hearings, which meant there was a total of seven judges working there in August.

Auckland District Court is the busiest court in New Zealand and has been criticised in the past for its case backlog.

During the blitz last August, Wellington judge Michael Hobbs, father of former All Black Jock Hobbs, said delays for hearings in Auckland were intolerable and they brought the justice system into disrepute.

The retired judge had been called to help because of the heavy workload.

National Party law and order spokesman Tony Ryall said that despite the progress in Auckland the backlog of cases around the country needed more work.

"Senior members of the bar up and down the country are still telling me about the delays and pressures in the court system," he said. "The Government is incompetently dealing with this. We should be able to get improvements across the country, not just in selected spots."

Mr Barker said the Auckland District Court was running well, but sometimes the number of cases on hand rose because of matters outside the control of the courts - for example, if either the prosecution or defence were not ready to proceed with the case.

He said the reduction of the backlog in Auckland, which reduced the wait for criminal summary cases to be heard from 99 days to 70 days, was also a reflection of re-prioritised work and improved registry practices.

To complement the progress at the court, the Ministry of Justice plans to start a three to four-year programme of building work to upgrade it, subject to funding.

A year ago, then-Auckland Mayor John Banks said it was unacceptable for citizens to put up with "third world" facilities in vandalised and grubby public areas of the Auckland District Court.

Mr Banks said at the time that he would push the Government for a start on a long-promised refurbishment plan.

Mr Barker also said that in the past two years there had been a 10 per cent increase in the number of jury trials.

In July last year the Ministry of Justice released figures showing 89 jury trials scheduled for the Auckland District Court had been waiting for more than a year.