Justice Worthwhile

PEOPLE involved in any court process are often concerned by delays. It is a very common criticism. Delays give rise to frustration. There are delays in criminal cases, where the prosecution must disclose its case to the accused person.

In the normal course, a person is accused of an offence. There must be evidence to support the initial accusation. It often happens that further information has to be obtained, such as witnesses statements. This evidence can be presented in the trial.
Before the trial, however, the accused has to know proper details of the allegations, together with the supporting evidence. They can then consider whether they can fight the charge or plead guilty to it.
For criminal matters, that usually involves the police interviewing witnesses, typing up statements and making sure they are correct.
The commissioner suggested the disclosure process was taking too many resources and taking police from the beat.
The process might be resource heavy, but there is no point in making arrests if there is inadequate follow-up to prosecute. I agree with the commissioner that time taken to gather information causes delay.Huge delays. The solution is the provision of more resources for police for their information gathering processes, rather than to alter the duty of the prosecuting authority to provide its evidence to the accused.
In civil cases, notably personal injuries, there are often delays between when trauma causes an injury and the resolution of the case in court.
This results in a lot of anxiety for the victims of injuries because they want the matters to be finished. Most often, the delay is caused by the time taken for the full extent of the injuries to become known so that the exact loss can be assessed. In an injury case, the court has to assess future loss.
Once the case is settled a person cannot come back for more compensation. In one case a person had a sore neck from an accident. Two years later that deteriorated to the point he was wheelchair bound.
If he had settled the case one year after the accident he would not be entitled to further compensation when he became much worse.
People involved in litigation should not have to put up with unnecessary delays. If they are unavoidable, this should be explained by their legal adviser. That way, the person might not like the delay but at least they can understand why it occurs.
In the meantime, with advances in information technology, it should be easier to access the courts by using the internet, email and the like. Unfortunately, information gathering is not something that can be done hurriedly.
One problem arises when there is a significant delay between the occurrence of an event and the time it is brought to light.
This will arise following the Mullighan Inquiry and the allegations of abuse that will undoubtedly flow from it. Many of these will have occurred many years ago. That should not be a reason for an offender to avoid charges if a crime has been committed.
However, we would not want a situation to arise where people might be mistakenly accused and wrongly found guilty because they are unable to prove their innocence due to the time that has passed.
Our justice system will continue to review itself so claims are investigated and dealt with as soon as possible, in fairness to all concerned.

till next time, Michelle.