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Justice officials have been forced to renovate buildings, send judges on tour and consider adjusting current legislation to enable the High Court to keep on top of its methamphetamine-related workload.
Justice Ministry figures released to the Herald show 54 per cent of the cases sent to the High Court for trial or sentence last year - 213 out of 396 - were for meth-related offending.
In the Auckland High Court registry, methamphetamine-related cases as a total of all High Court committals rose from 48 per cent in 2004 to 60 per cent last year.
Of the 146 High Court committals last year, 88 were for crimes alleged to involve methamphetamine.
And the number of meth cases looks to be rising steadily as a percentage of total High Court trials - from 41 per cent in 2004 and 49 per cent in 2005.
The onslaught of cases has forced officials to introduce a raft of innovations to keep the High Court functioning.
High Court national operations general manager Graeme Astle says wide-ranging measures initiated include the appointment of more judges and court staff, and renovating of High Court buildings "to better utilise space".
High Court judges - based in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch - routinely travel to hear cases in the smaller centres, but those judges could now be redistributed, as necessary, across the three main centres as well.
A national roster system has been devised to balance demand in higher-workload centres such as Auckland.
The recording of evidence, usually by a judge's assistant taking typewritten notes, can be a tedious process in High Court trials, but court organisers have moved to introduce digital recording and transcription services to increase efficiency.
In other time-saving strategies, pre-trial conferencing between judge and counsel and other parties is now occurring in criminal and civil trials expected to run for more than 10 days.
Those conferences, it is hoped, will keep scheduled court fixtures on track.
The Government is also considering legislation that would move some methamphetamine offences back to the District Court.
The legislation - known as middle-banding - does not yet have an official title, and has yet to make it as far as hearings.
A spokesman for Courts Minister Rick Barker yesterday confirmed tentative plans for an adjustment to the grading of methamphetamine crimes.
The "logistics and thresholds" of such a move were still being examined, Adham Crichton said.
"It would be a significant change, and they want to get it right."
But the move already appears to have the support of the National Party, as long as the backlog is not simply moved from the High to District Court level.
