Chief Justice calls out meritless bail attempts for wasting judges' time; backlog measures start to take effect

The Supreme Court of Tasmania released its 2020-21 annual report last week which again highlighted a backlog of cases as its main issue, but the effects of law and policy changes to ease the pressure were yet to be reported upon.

The annual report outlined the significant challenges faced by the courts due to COVID, including rapid changes to courtroom infrastructure to allow for social distancing among jurors.

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The lack of jury trials for four months meant other cases were brought forward and trials were pushed back, adding to the backlog when trials could eventually continue.

Chief Justice Alan Blow AO said the Director of Public Prosecutions also appeared to be under-resourced.

"As in previous years, the court could have made judges available to conduct more criminal trials, but the Director of Public Prosecutions was constrained by limited resources affecting the number of cases that could be brought to trial," he wrote.

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While bail cases in the Supreme Court reduced from 461 to 333 for the 12 months, Chief Justice Blow said this was still "far too high".

"A very large proportion of them have no merit at all, and they take up far too much of the judges' time," he wrote.

The case clearance rate was at 92 per cent for 2020-21, with anything below 100 per cent only adding to the backlog of cases.

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During the financial year, the Tasmanian Government brought in measures in an attempt to ease this pressure, including keeping cases in the Magistrates Court until after preliminary proceedings have finished and bringing in new summary offences to keep cases out of the Supreme Court.

Dollar amount thresholds for when cases can be tried in the Magistrates Court was also altered.

Attorney-General Elise Archer said the 2021-22 budget also contained additional funding to support the courts to hear more cases, while additional judges and magistrates had been appointed.

"We also continue to strongly fund the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions - with an additional $6.4 million over the next four years - to ensure that our hard-working prosecutors are well-resourced," she said.

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