Moves to speed up court process

The Government is looking at speeding up court processes after complaints from judges about delayed cases, Justice Minister Phil Goff said today.

Mr Goff told MPs at a select committee hearing that he had heard of one case that had been delayed 22 times and examples like this were "patently ridiculous".

Earlier this week Wellington District Court Judge Chris Tuohy also complained that he had to postpone five defended hearings in an hour due to unavailable witnesses and lawyers, and missing police files.

"It just doesn't seem to me that anybody's really interested in having these defended hearings on either side. I mean why bother?" Judge Tuohy asked one lawyer.

Mr Goff told MPs that delays and adjournments were frequent and "often unjustified".

There were also matters dealt with by the courts which could be dealt with elsewhere.

Mr Goff said he had been told that 10 per cent of court time was taken up by preliminary hearings.

"There is a growing consensus that while preliminary hearings are sometimes warranted they are not required in every case," Mr Goff said.

"There should be discretion on the part of the court to require oral hearings if necessary."

These changes would be outlined in a Law Commission report to be released in the near future and if implemented they would cut down on delays.

Mr Goff said judges and lawyers were keen for changes to long standing practices because they felt the justice system had to be modernised.

- NZPA