New judicial appointments as courts struggle with backlog
The State Government has made two new judicial appointments, amid outspoken complaints about the South Australian legal system’s ability to cope with a backlog of cases.
No new courts precinct, but two new judges.
Sam Doyle SC has been appointed as a Justice of the Supreme Court and Sophie David SC will be a District Court Judge.
The appointments come a day after InDaily revealed a scathing assessment of the administration of district court case lists, with prominent lawyers slamming “disgraceful” trial delays and one suggesting if you have a terminal illness you “might as well go out and commit a crime, because you’re never going to be held to account”.
The appointments fill long-standing vacancies, which had been criticised as preventing the courts deal with a backlog of cases.
Sophie David’s appointment as judge of the District Court fills a gap created by the retirement of Judge David Smith and the move of Judge Anne Bampton to the Supreme Court.
Both appointees follow in their fathers’ footsteps. Sam Doyle’s father John is a former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, while Sophie David’s father Michael served on the benches of the District and Supreme courts.
David was appointed senior counsel in 2014 after a career focusing on criminal law. She worked for five years as a prosecutor in the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions before moving to the independent bar in 2003.
In 2014 and 2015 she appeared as counsel assisting the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in five public hearings in SA and interstate.
Sam Doyle will fill the vacancy created by resignation of Justice Thomas Gray.
Doyle’s legal career includes private practice in commercial and civil litigation as well as criminal appeals. He also worked as counsel assisting the Royal Commission into the Collapse of HIH in 2001.
He began his career as an associate to Justice Bruce Lander, now South Australia’s Independent Commissioner Against Corruption.
Doyle joined the independent bar in 2002 and was appointed senior counsel in 2012.
Opposition spokeswoman Vickie Chapman welcomed the appointments as “excellent choices”, but warned there was still a “major hole in the capacity of the District Court in particular”.
