Foreword by Chief Justice of NSW

This review provides information of the Court’s stewardship of the resources made available to it. The primary measurement of the Court’s activity must be qualitative: fidelity to the law and fairness of its processes and outcomes. This Review, for the first time, sets out a short summary of a few cases decided in 2003. They are a small sample of the 2,000 or so separate substantive judgments delivered by the 51 judicial officers of the Court during the year.

Over recent years NSW courts have substantially reduced the delays that have, in the past, been of great concern. That process is not yet complete, but the problem has been substantially alleviated. As long as the same levels of resources are made available to the courts, further progress can be expected.This is not a cause for complacency. In the administration of justice, as in all areas of government, the search for improved ways of doing things must be ongoing. In the years ahead the focus of our attention must be on reducing costs. This does not mean the reduction of costs to consolidated revenue, although that is important, but reducing costs to the parties involved in litigation. Delay has, of course, been a major cause of waste and increased costs. However, other sources of avoidable costs require attention.

In many areas of litigation, the costs incurred in the process bear no rational relationship, let alone a proportionate relationship, to what is at stake in the proceedings. The principal focus of improvement, now that delays are well on the way to being acceptable, must be the creation of a proportionate relationship between costs and what is at stake.

Some of the case management practices that the courts have adopted, in order to reduce delays, may have resulted in increased costs, such as the costs that can increase as a result of the over-listing of cases. The courts are continuing to fine-tune case management practices, by minimising over-listing and adjournments in order to reduce costs to litigants.

The new computer system for NSW courts, CourtLink, will create numerous opportunities to reduce costs. The legal profession should prepare itself for a substantial expansion in the use of online mentions and e-filing. CourtLink has provided an opportunity to streamline processes within each court, as well as between courts.

A working party with judicial and registry representatives of the three main courts and of the profession, is well advanced. It appears, for example, that something like 695 different forms are used in the criminal jurisdictions of the Local, District and Supreme Courts. The rationalisation process will result, in the criminal area, in a standard type of warrant, a standard type of bond, a standard type of affidavit and notices performing identical functions in the different courts will be in a standard form. Progress is well advanced towards a single set of rules and forms and a civil procedure act for NSW courts.

Nevertheless, it will remain appropriate that the rules accommodate the need for different levels of complexity in the different components of the hierarchy of courts in this State. It must remain possible to conduct matters of greater complexity and significance in a different manner from other matters. Accordingly, the requirements and procedures of the Local Court should remain simpler and more expeditious than those of the District Court, which in turn should remain simpler and more expeditious than those of the Supreme Court. These gradations can be incorporated in a common framework.

Perhaps the most distinctive feature of CourtLink is that it will provide a single system for all of the courts in New South Wales. Interaction between courts, for example by way of appeal from one court to another, and interaction between courts and other agencies of the justice system, will be facilitated to an extent that has never been possible in the past. What is in prospect is a considerable simplification of the processes with which litigants and their representatives have had to become familiar in the past.

This process of change will gain momentum in the coming year in order to provide the community with more affordable access to the NSW court system.

The Honourable JJ Spigelman AC

Chief Justice of New South Wales