Editorial: Speeding up the wheels of justice

The saying "the wheels of justice turn slowly" is generally true about the court system in this country and many others.

Hopefully this is about to change with significant overhauls in the system aimed at reducing the time it takes to process cases, coming in to effect this week.

The changes are part of the Criminal Procedure Act which was passed in 2011. The overhaul is expected to eliminate more than 10,000 unnecessary sitting hours every year.

At present it can take more than a year for a district court jury trial to be resolved and about 70 weeks for a high court jury trial.

This seems to be far too long. Everyone has the right to a fair trial and every aspect of a case needs to be examined thoroughly before a verdict is made, but some cases do seem to go on and on.

The changes are expected to reduce the average time it takes to resolve a court case by six to nine weeks, as well as reduce the number of jury trials by at least 350 a year,

Concern has been raised by Jonathan Krebs, a New Zealand law society criminal law sub-committee member, who said that while the changes may be good in theory, there were a few downsides in reality. Doing things quickly, didn't always mean doing them better. He was unsure if the police and prosecution could cope with the pressure to provide information within new time limits.

This is a valid point, but one hopes that these issues are addressed at an organisational and functional level so that justice can be done more quickly. No matter what side of the law you are on, it is in no ones interest for cases to linger.

Justice needs to be seen to be done ... quickly.

Hopefully from now it will be.