Increased judge time reducing waits for trials

A dramatic increase in judge time in the Queenstown District Court this year is reducing waiting times for criminal trials.

A judge presided over trials on 26 days in the six months to June 30, putting the court on track for more than 50 days by the end of the year.

That would be a two-thirds increase on last year’s 31 days.

Queenstown barrister Liam Collins said the average wait for his outstanding trials in the resort had "dropped dramatically" this year to between six and eight months.

He was pleased by the trend, as the situation had been "critical" a year ago.

Mr Collins told the Otago Daily Times last June more judge time was badly needed to address delays caused by the resort’s rapidly rising population and visitor numbers.

Defendants facing criminal charges were waiting longer than a year for a trial, and the delay was prompting some to plead guilty, even when they believed they were innocent.

Since then, progress had been made in clearing the backlog.

"It appears the judiciary and the Ministry of Justice are trying to solve the problem."

Queenstown’s court staff deserved much of the credit, he said.

There was a strong case for a full-time judge to be assigned to the Queenstown and Alexandra courts, he said.

The resort was experiencing "growing pains", and had a unique demographic profile, both of which placed extra demands on the court.

However, Chief District Court Judge Jan-Marie Doogue said Queenstown’s caseload still did not warrant a resident judge.

Judge Doogue said the greater judge time allocated to Queenstown this year was a result of priority being given to "smoothing out disposal-time differences" for judge-alone trials across the country.

The fluctuating demand for judges across all district courts was monitored closely, and responded to as much as resources allowed, she said.