The Department has made significant progress across all our services this year due to a wide program of change focused on improving the quality of our services, streamlining our processes and developing strategic frameworks to guide the management of our resources.
An important initiative has been the development of a Strategic Framework for Court Services. This framework identifies key priorities and initiatives currently planned for the courts and the Department, and serves as a guide to planning other initiatives and reforms in the court and tribunal services over the next four years.
This year, an additional $736,000 was allocated to the Supreme Court to enable the appointment of acting judges. The acting judge program has contributed to a 20 per cent decrease in the number of criminal trials on hand in the Supreme Court over the last three years. Waiting times for civil cases in the Court of Appeal have also been reduced. To build on this success, the Supreme Court has established time standards for dealing with civil matters and will allow the court to enforce compliance to the timetable and impose realistic cost sanctions to expedite hearings, shorten adjournment periods and deliver hearing date certainty.
In the District Court, the allocation of additional resources and proactive case management has reduced pending criminal trials by 30 per cent this year. The number of pending cases in Sydney and Sydney-West has been reduced during the year from 621 to 321 and 503 to 290, respectively.
Completion of the new Courthouse at Toronto has now been completed and the court is open for business. The complex has fully accessible and modern facilities, including spacious public spaces and private interview rooms, the latest video and audio technology and a high level of security.
A comprehensive maintenance and refurbishment program has been implemented in several key facilities, most substantially at the Industrial Relations Commission and Local Courts at Central-Sydney and in Deniliquin and Bathurst.
The Department’s web site, Lawlink NSW, continues to go from strength to strength, offering the people of NSW a gateway to over 15,000 pages of legal information, as well as links to other useful legal websites. LawLink now registers nearly two million page views a month, compared to 220,000 a month last year. Almost a quarter of visitors to the site are from rural and regional areas. A key initiative for the site this year has been the launch of DV Link, which provides professionals working in the domestic violence sector within an online gateway to resources available on the Internet.
The Department continues its commitment to developing new and more innovative responses to crime and crime prevention. Building upon the success of the adult Drug Court at Parramatta, a pilot Youth Drug Court project was developed this year and will be trialed over the next two years in Western Sydney. The project will combine intensive judicial supervision and case management for young people who are charged with criminal offences resulting from drug and alcohol use.
In order to support the development of locally based crime prevention initiatives, grants totalling $1.13 million were allocated to local communities this year from the Safer Communities Development Fund.
The Anti-Discrimination Board reduced waiting times for allocation of complaints from six months to two months following the introduction of new complaints handling systems during the year. The Board received 16,655 enquiries during the year with the highest proportion of complaints relating to sex and disability discrimination.
The Office of the Protective Commissioner and Public Guardian has now established an Advisory Council. The Council’s membership includes community representatives and independent experts from areas such as mental health, finance and investment who will collectively provide advice on strategy and performance. Similarly, Victims Services established a panel of professionals with expertise in psychological injury and introduced reforms that will ensure the families of homicide victims have access to counselling at the earliest opportunity.
Consumers are set to benefit from the introduction of a trade marked logo that is awarded to legal practitioners who demonstrate a high standard of professional service. Launched in March 2000, the Professional Standards Council’s Cover of Excellence program promotes competency, accountability, quality, ethical behaviour and responsiveness to consumers.
To help us build a better workplace, the views of staff on a range of issues were sought during the year through an employee survey. The information gathered in the survey has been used to develop a comprehensive human resources strategy. A number of initiatives in the strategy have already been implemented to address staff concerns regarding recruitment practices.
Finally and most importantly, I would like to acknowledge the outstanding efforts of the Department’s staff and judicial officers. Their ongoing commitment and dedication has enabled the Department to contribute to substantial justice system reform throughout the year.
Laurie Glanfield
Director General