Growing Backlog of Solo Judge Trials Causes Concern Among Lawyers and Frustrated Defendants

When you plead not guilty, a case review hearing is scheduled four to six weeks later, a process intended to reduce court turnover and allow defendants to plead guilty sooner.

However, data obtained under the Official Information Law suggests otherwise.

The option to select a trial with a single judge instead of a jury trial It was once assumed to resolve cases more quickly, but recent statistics obtained by NZME show more than 50% of cases remain adjourned with no end in sight.

Between October 2023 and September of last year, 11,148 trials against judges alone were scheduled nationwide, but only 4,175 were resolved, through guilty pleas, withdrawal or dismissal, leaving 6,973 cases still in the system.

In Whangarei Alone, only nine of the 134 trials with elected judges resulted in a full hearing that concluded with a guilty or not guilty verdict, leaving 75 cases adjourned and more being added to the queue daily.

So is the single judge process working?

The Government is proposing to raise the threshold for choosing a jury trial to a maximum three-year sentence in the hope of eliminating jury trial backlogs, but Auckland criminal lawyer Samira Taghavi says the proposal will make matters worse.

“One of the issues we raised with the Minister of Justice is to increase the jury trial threshold; It won’t make any difference. It’s probably going to make things worse because there are still no judges who handle single-judge trials. It’s quicker to get a jury trial date,” Taghavi told NZME.

“You have to wait longer to get a trial with a judge alone than with a jury.

“I asked for a five-day trial date with a single judge (in 2023) and it would have been faster to go to a jury trial, but I didn’t want a jury trial.”

He said the trial was scheduled for April of this year.

Taghavi said the Association of Defense Lawyers and the Bar Association were in talks with the ministry about the delay in trials with judges alone and how the lack of judges was a growing concern.

“Let’s do some research to try to find out: Would this problem be solved if there were more judges?

“One of the things we are trying to achieve is to increase the limit set by legislation on the number of judges they can appoint.”

Currently, the limit is 183 judges nationwide.

‘There is not enough space’

District Court Chief Judge Hemi Taumaunu set a benchmark in June last year, aiming for 90% of category three trials between single judges to be held within nine months.

However, Sumudu Thode, director of lawyers and solicitors at Thode Utting and Co., expressed doubt that the target will be met.

He said of the 59 trials that were resolved in Whangārei, only 8 per cent ended in a guilty or not guilty verdict.

“In terms of matters that actually go to trial with a judge alone, if people are getting tired of waiting and pleading beforehand, I guess you’re meeting those deadlines but are you actually going to a hearing and getting a decision? In terms of those statistics, it’s only nine files out of 59 in that time period.”

Thode said the problem, especially in the regions, was the availability of resources from police prosecutors to the courts.

“Whangārei has between five and six judges. If two are in jury trials, one is in the Northland circuit which covers Kaikohe and Kaitāia, one is making a list and the other is sentencing – and they need their dates booked, or one could be on leave – there are not enough judges to walk

“Also the availability of courtrooms. If you have a high court trial going on, you have four courts. If you have two jury trials, you only have two courts for regis (list of recorders), CM (community magistrate) sentencing, pre-trial, all that, so there’s not enough room to even fit in a trial court with a single judge. .”

An example was the 12-week trial before a single judge. celebrated in Whangārei last year for the Enchanter tragedypresided over by Judge Philip Rzepecky.

Thode said that although many people pleaded guilty that day (around 20%), there were a number of reasons why cases remained adjourned, which were often beyond the control of the accused.

For example, Thode Utting accepted a client in June who had already been assigned to a judge-only trial, but at that court hearing, his case was adjourned until July due to unavailable time.

In July the matter was adjourned until a summons in August, again because there was no time to appear in court.

In the August call, another date was set for September, but when the September hearing came, the matter was postponed again because the prosecutor was unwell.

It was adjourned again in September to another judge-only trial date in October, and once again it was almost adjourned when the defendant had enough.

“It continued to drag on”

“A resolution was put forward and it was accepted, but for the most part, he had enough because he couldn’t have contact with his whānau, he was on curfew, he just didn’t want it to go to another call to another judge. trial only to another call.

“We had two child witnesses for the accused and we had to submit the request for evidence for those children, we had them waiting, they had to be taken out of school and the thing continued to drag on and this was not due to anything to do with him.

“It is not surprising that we are only exceeding 8% of cases.”

Thode believed it was quicker to get to a jury trial because they had priority and were more certain to move forward.

“What most people think is a judge-only trial will happen much sooner. So obviously if you are in custody it is a huge consideration in terms of choice and they would normally ask for a judge-only trial as it would mean less time in custody. But that may not necessarily be the case anymore because of these delays.”

Police prosecution director Sarah McKenzie told NZME that an early guilty plea was always encouraged and a new line of work, the prosecution improvement programme, was being carried out to help address timeliness in progression of the case.

McKenzie said the work focused on improving the quality of records in the early stages of prosecution and encouraging early engagement between defense attorneys and the prosecution.

“Where these improvements, many of which have been trialled in the greater Auckland area, are yielding good results, police are looking to progressively roll them out across the country,” he said.

“These initiatives are having a positive impact on the early disclosure of charging documents to defense attorneys and are reducing the number of unnecessary case adjournments.”

Ministry of Justice group director Jacquelyn Shannon said a number of initiatives had been implemented across the country to reduce waiting times for judge-alone trials under the District Court Punctuality Program (DCTP). .

“In November 2024, 32% of cases took 4 months or more to enter the trial stage, 9% of cases took between 3 and 4 months, and 40% of cases entered the trial stage in 3 months,” Shannon said.

“One of the initiatives is the JIT preparation protocol, to address the barriers and delays that prevent JIT matters from being heard on the day. Court clerks hold a teleconference with the parties before a JAT to ensure that matters are ready to proceed or if time for the JAT is no longer required. Then, on the day of the JIT, the judge will call all previously scheduled matters to ensure that more matters can be heard that day.”

The DCTP is also establishing a practice in which prosecutors will be required to indicate how they will prove the case at a case review hearing.

However, the initiatives are not currently available in all courts.

Shannon Pitman is a Whangārei-based Open Justice reporter covering courts in the Te Tai Tokerau region. He is of Ngāpuhi/Ngāti Pūkenga descent and has worked in digital media for the past five years. Joined NZME in 2023.