KEY POINTS:
A man who was so badly beaten he required plastic surgery has joined the growing list of victims who are outraged at the time it is taking to bring defendants to trial.
Denis Khotchenko, 25, and his girlfriend, Valerie Nesterova, 20, were attacked while they sat in their
car at Milford Beach in January.
Police made quick arrests but the four young men charged won't be put on trial until August next year.
Mr Khotchenko told the Weekend Herald he knew it wasn't a "politically correct" thing to say but he felt the courts were being negligent in taking so long to hear cases.
"Basically it will be 18 months after the attack. People forget about it, but the victims don't."
The long wait for the case to come to trial was hard because it meant crime victims didn't have closure, he said. "We were hoping the trial would be this year, in November."
Mr Khotchenko's girlfriend needs expensive plastic surgery on her ear that can only be done overseas and he also still needs surgery.
The case highlights the massive workload district courts are confronted with on a daily basis - something that concerns lawyers and judges.
Criminal Bar Association president Graeme Newell was surprised to hear an August 2009 date had been set for the trial of Mr Khotchenko's alleged attackers. "If that is a firm trial date then that is good." He said some people were waiting much longer.
A Government move to allow methamphetamine trials to be heard in the district court would add to the workload even more.
These trials take over courtrooms for weeks because many of them involve listening to hours of intercepted conversations.
Mr Newell said jury trials relied on people's memories and if there was a long wait until trial, witnesses' evidence was not always going to be the best quality. Some witnesses could also be lost.
The answer to the delays was more resources and more courtrooms because judges were "severely under resourced", he said.
Other high-profile cases that are awaiting trial are the homicide trial of teenager Haiden Davis, who is accused of murdering Augustine Borrell in September 2006. A High Court date of March next year has been set for that trial.
Charges have been thrown out because of excessive delays to trials but there is no fixed time that has to pass before a case is abandoned. Instead, a variety of factors, such as the charge, are taken into account.
This year, northern region executive judge Jan Marie Doogue said more resources were needed to stop the growing backlog of Greater Auckland district court cases.
Commenting in LawNews, Judge Doogue said Auckland presented ongoing challenges because two-thirds of the country's district court jury trials held in the region.
Figures show between 2005 and 2007 there was a 36 per cent increase in youth court cases, 25 per cent increase in the number of criminal cases and a 28 per cent rise in defended hearings.
Judge Doogue said the region's courthouses were full and intervention was needed to stop the increasing workload from becoming a crisis.
* Harlem Haunui Kirton, Jonathon Paul Wilson, Ruaumoko Taiapa and Piri Kirton are jointly charged with three counts of aggravated robbery of Mr Khotchenko and Ms Nesterova, aggravated robbery with intent to commit robbery and four counts of intentionally causing grievous bodily harm.
