Barrister and former politician Angus Redford painted a systemic failure reminiscent of the TV series Breaking Bad, in which protagonist Walter White turns to crime after learning he is dying of cancer. Redford argues if you have a terminal illness in South Australia you might as well “go out and commit a crime, because you’re never going to be held to account”.

“If you commit an armed robbery, you’re never going to get a trial inside two years,” he said.

Chairman of the Bar Association’s Criminal Law Committee William Boucaut SC told InDaily delays in the choked District Court had been “a bad problem for the last few years” but “this year I think it’s reached disgraceful levels”.

“(For) your average district court case, if it was set down this morning you’d be looking at a trial date of about November next year, which is a disgrace in itself,” he said.

“(But) if it’s not a priority matter, then the way things are going at the moment, it’s very unlikely to be allocated a hearing in November when it comes up.”

It’s not a trial list, it’s a wishlist

This is exactly what happened to Redford yesterday, when a fraud case “that didn’t get reached last week got listed for the third week of November – next year”.

“And it’s a low priority next year, so it’s a 50/50 chance it will proceed next year,” he said.

He said the matter was complicated by the fact one of the complainants was elderly.

“I said to the judge, I might not even be alive when that comes in,” he said.

Redford says three of his four trials that were listed this month were not reached.

“The trial list is not a trial list, it’s a wishlist,” he said.

“I’m exasperated, it’s just absurd – we’ve got a criminal justice system where no-one gets to court.”

His comments underline figures published by The Advertiser’s Sean Fewster this month, which showed that 26 scheduled district court trials failed to eventuate last month, with upwards of 600 already listed for next year.

Redford, a former Liberal MLC who ‘retired’ in 2006 to return to law, says December is already “worse than November” and is scathing of the funding imbalance between police and courts that “the people of North Terrace have come up with, God bless ‘em”.

“If you’re going to have a lot of police on the beat, and they’re going to charge more criminals, you’d better have more courts and more judges – that would go without saying, wouldn’t it?” he said.

“That would be the logical thing (but) it seems to have escaped some policymakers’ attention.”

Attorney-General John Rau is on leave this week, but his office said in a statement that “listing practices are exclusively a matter for the courts, over which the Government has no control”.

Nonetheless, “the Attorney-General is currently pursuing system wide reform of the justice system (which) will need to include change in culture and behaviour of all parts of the justice system including SAPOL, the DPP, legal services commission, the private profession and the courts”.

That’s a view shared by Boucaut, who agrees that “the whole system needs to be looked at”.

“But it needs to be acknowledged by the courts, by the Attorney-General and by the legal profession, that there’s this ridiculous problem, which causes an incredible waste of public resources,” he said.

“Leaving aside the fact it leaves people – victims, witnesses – on tenterhooks, and they can’t get any closure to the matter, it’s just this incredible waste of resources.”

Boucaut says the problem is “a symptom of a number of things … certainly not having enough available courts or available judicial officers would have a bit to do with it”.

But, he argues, “the bottom line is it’s brought about by the district court” setting down a “grossly overstated” number of cases for trial.

“So that unless some things actually fall over, the trials aren’t going to be reached,” he said.

In a pointed slap at the court’s administration, he considered the argument that appointing more judges would solve the problem.

“That’s what the district court would say because they’re bleating that they haven’t got enough (but) funnily enough, it’s not a problem in the Supreme Court, which seems to work its list very well,” he said.

InDaily this morning sought comment from the Courts Administration Authority.

It all comes to nothing – it must be costing the taxpayers a fortune!

This month, the Criminal Justice Management Forum met to discuss changes to the way the criminal jurisdiction of the District Court is managed, resolving a range of scheduling amendments to “improve the way the court processes and disposes of matters in its criminal jurisdiction”.

However, in a communiqué it determined that “the court does not propose to abolish or significantly change its practice of over-listing criminal trials”.

“The over-listing ratio will be monitored and adjusted if thought appropriate (but) the priority system that currently exists will be maintained,” it read.

That priority system gives precedence to “legislated child priority sex cases”, legislated serious and organised crime cases and trials where alleged offenders are in custody.

But Redford says that means “something like an armed robbery or a fraud is very low on the list … it’s very, very rare that you get in first time”.

“In juvenile justice (matters), they’re taking 18 months … if you commit a crime at 14, it takes two years (so) some of these kids are waiting two years to get told off,” he said.

“What happens is, you get two or three police officers running around getting things ready for trial, the prosecutor gets something ready for trial, and it all comes to nothing…it must be costing the taxpayers a fortune!”

In an emailed newsletter to members this month, Bar Association president Andrew Harris QC said he had written to Chief Judge Geoffrey Muecke about over-listing concerns, and pondered “if some thought might be spared for criminal barristers at the private bar who, by and large, do not get paid when their cases are not reached”.

“The criminal bar can be forgiven for wondering why they are the ones who are being expected to bear the financial cost of the inability of the District Court to dispose of its workload in a timely way,” he wrote.

Moreover, “there is of course an important issue of wasted public resources associated with trials which have been listed, prepared for and then not reached”.

The Attorney-General’s office says the Government expects to “bring forward substantial reforming legislation in the first half of next year”.

In March, it abandoned a $500 million public-private partnership plan to redevelop the courts precinct by 2017.