5 June 2013

Simon continues to insist a fifth judge is not needed

| johnboy
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Amidst the broader farce of a city of 300,000 maintaining its own independent legal system we have today the complaint of the departing Zed Seselja that Labor has again kiboshed moves to appoint a fifth Supreme Court Judge.

If such a judge were to do their homework there’s a fighting chance cases could be resolved within a year or so of commencing in the court and Canberra’s legal fraternity wouldn’t forever be seeking excuses to get their cases heard in the Federal Court.

Here’s what Zed has to say:

Today, the ACT Government opposed legislation to appoint a fifth judge in the Supreme Court. The legislation, introduced by Shadow Attorney-General Zed Seselja, was aimed at reducing the long delays in the ACT court system which has had a devastating effect on hundreds of Canberrans.

Yesterday’s Budget shows that over the last year the delays have increased even further. The percentage of criminal cases waiting in the Supreme Court for more than 24 months increased from 5 to 10 per cent, and the average number of days to finalise civil cases from the time of lodgement in the Supreme Court has increased from 550 to 617.

“It is very disappointing that Labor and the Greens have failed to listen to the ACT Law Society, the ACT Bar Association, leading criminologists and victims’ families who are all supportive of a fifth judge,” Mr Seselja said today.

“The ACT Budget also failed to introduce any new initiatives to address the long delays and the Government has not proposed any new policies to address this issue.

But no… Simon Corbell insists it’s just a scracth!

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dpm said :

‘ ”We can’t take the easy way out, we need to tackle the hard questions of reform, better practice and procedure in the court, and that’s my commitment,” he said. ‘

I wonder if this mandate of his should be shined towards the MLAs, before they decide (after an ‘independent’ inquiry) that they need heaps more MLAs for their workload?

Of course not,Simon’s been doing it tough for decades,just ask him, so let the bastards in the judiciary suffer and what’s more who cares whether we inflict pain upon some Canberrans by taking years for judgements,after all they’re only peasants!

‘ ”We can’t take the easy way out, we need to tackle the hard questions of reform, better practice and procedure in the court, and that’s my commitment,” he said. ‘

I wonder if this mandate of his should be shined towards the MLAs, before they decide (after an ‘independent’ inquiry) that they need heaps more MLAs for their workload?

neanderthalsis said :

Well Simon, if we can’t have a new judge, can we at least have four that work?

See that’s the problem and I have it on good authority that they’re,believe or not, trying their best to get through the workload but are unable to do so.Obviously no one is gonna be able to pull a rabbit out of their arse but Corbell reckons they’re gonna have to coz he says so and he’s top dog!

johnboy said :

Iceland

So it’s fair to say that Corbell is the real iceman?

caf said :

There’s an island of 320,000 that maintains its own Coast Guard (and has tangled with the Royal Navy!).

johnboy said :

And they have their own currency which has caused some problems with banking…

OK, clever persons, tell me what island this is, although I’ll probably feel like an idiot when I hear.

neanderthalsis9:06 am 06 Jun 13

Well Simon, if we can’t have a new judge, can we at least have four that work?

There’s an island of 320,000 that maintains its own Coast Guard (and has tangled with the Royal Navy!).

And they have their own currency which has caused some problems with banking…

This is Corbell’s reasoning for not needing to appoint an additional Judge:

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/comment/streamlining-will-speed-up-supreme-court-20130519-2juwo.html

Here we have David Biles(consultant criminologist) response to Corbell’s claims:

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/comment/justice-means-another-judge-20130602-2nk9x.html

In addition to this the Chief Justice Terence Higgins has repeatedly expressed the need for an expanded bench, as has the ACT Bar Association and the ACT Law Society.

The undeniable fact is that we currently have a justice system which is substandard and has caused grief for many in our community due to the clogged up court system.Corbell says that the ACT must drive efficiency through the court, rather than simply giving the system unnecessary resources.

”We can’t take the easy way out, we need to tackle the hard questions of reform, better practice and procedure in the court, and that’s my commitment,” he said.

Sure it all sounds great in theory but in the ‘REAL WORLD’ his idealistic approach is not going to fix the problem that has been apparent for a number of years now.Obviously the current crop of judges have not been able to cope with their workload which is why there have been cases outstanding for up to 5 years.

Refshauge for example was stood down in February for six months to deal with a backlog of cases that were awaiting judgment.He apparently has delivered nine judgements in 3 months and there are about 20 other cases that need to be resolved before the August deadline.

The real problem is how does one convince Stubborn Simon that we should have an additional judge when he’s got his head buried in the sand?

Seriously, what *is* his problem with this? He’s actually starting to make Zed look good – and that’s saying something!!

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