The Ministry of Justice is taking a positive step forward in its move to trial night courts in Auckland, North Shore, Waitakere and Manukau in an effort to clear the backlog of cases that have taken much too long to hear.
The trial will see courts run from 8:30am-7pm. Justice of the Peace hearings, registrars' lists and tribunals will take place during the extended hours. If the trial proves successful, night courts could become the norm throughout the country.
Given the lengthy delays in hearings - with some people being caught up in the court system for years with no outcome - the night courts can only be a positive step.
In fact, this is a move that could be extended successfully to the Health sector. I had heard that Auckland Hospital, in a bid to cut waiting times for radiation treatment, has done just this. Rather than treatment simply being provided from 8am-5pm, the introduction of shifts would extend the hours in which radiation treatment is available and waiting lists could be slashed. Waiting times could be significantly reduced through by simply re-jigging the hours.
If such a move worked at Auckland Hospital - and I'm told it has - and the principle is being trialled now in the court system, what is stopping it from being implemented at hospitals throughout New Zealand?
Seems more like a late
Seems more like a late afternoon early evening than 'night' approach to me. If there are truly 8 hour day jobs around the courts, which I am certain there are, then there should be a true "double-shift" approach to using the court assets that are to be found all over the country.
Our judiciary, like many others, seem to enjoy a four to five hour 'sitting' day, doing paperwork and other necessary judicial activities in their chambers for the rest of their day. This leaves a number of employees of the Ministry of Justice hanging about waiting for their next activity (those that are employees solely to service the 'court' in its sitting hours.
As we are seeing from the investment in the new Supreme Court building, court rooms are expensive assets that, like hospital operating theatres and schools, are significantly underutilised compared to their 24x7 availability. With an education system that churns out law graduates by the thousand every year, there is surely no reason (other than 'tradition') why these assets are not put to far more use than they currently are. At the very least it would ensure that the horrific gap between a suspect being charged with a crime and their guilt or innocence properly determined, is significantly reduced.
Justice deferred is justice denied, and a situation where it routinely takes over a year to bring an accused to face a jury of their peers can only be described as justice deferred.
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