Court Shift For Injury Cases Has Barristers Worried
Sydney Morning Herald
Sunday June 22, 1997
It's known as the cattle yard. It is the long corridor with the threadbare carpet on the 15th floor of Sydney's Downing Centre court complex, where people making personal injury claims, their lawyers and witnesses wait for their cases to be called for a hearing.
On a bad day, time runs out and up to three cases will not make it.
Those cases are then put off for up to two or three months before a new hearing is scheduled, barristers say.
If the NSW Bar Association's fears are correct, the cattle yard is about to become more crowded because of what the association claims are ill-considered moves by the State Government to speed up the pace of hearings for the thousands of personal injury claims lodged annually in NSW.
Under the Government's plan, the bulk of personal injury claims - and almost all motor vehicle accident claims - will now be heard in the District Court rather than the Supreme Court, where it takes almost three years to finalise civil cases.
The attraction for the Government is that the District Court, with the help of more than 40 acting judges, has been able to cut the time it takes to resolve civil cases down to less than 15 months.
To encourage more cases into the District Court, the Government late last week introduced legislation into Parliament which will allow the District Court to hear personal injury claims in which damages of up to $750,000 are claimed.
At present, it cannot hear cases in which more than $250,000 is claimed. Those cases have to go to the Supreme Court.
The Government also plans to shift all motor vehicle accident claims into the District Court. Only those in which damages are likely to exceed $1 million may be heard in the Supreme Court.
The result, according to the acting president of the NSW Bar Association, Mr Rick Burbidge, QC, will be that virtually all the State's major personal injury claims will be decided in the District Court.
He predicted yesterday that more cases would not be called by the court on the day fixed for hearing because barristers believe, unlike the Government, that the District Court is already overloaded with work.
Mr Burbidge said delays in hearing cases would push up the costs of bringing personal injury claims and heighten the level of worry for claimants.
The ultimate effect of the changes, barristers believe, will be that the increased numbers of people whose cases are not heard on the day set will become frustrated and inclined to accept lower settlement offers from insurers.
The Attorney-General, Mr Shaw, rejects the Bar's arguments, pointing out that in Victoria, Western Australia and South Australia, the lower courts have already gained unlimited jurisdiction to hear personal injury cases.
Also, he says, people will not wait as long for their damages to be awarded in the District Court because it has been so successful in cutting delays.
Under the Government's proposed changes, the Supreme Court will no longer hear any personal injury cases in which it believes damages will not exceed $750,000. And it will only be motor vehicle accident cases where damages are likely to exceed $1 million.
The changes will be retrospective, so the Supreme Court may cull its waiting list and offload cases which fall under the new damages threshold to the District Court.
That will allow the Government to claim a fall in the Supreme Court's present 32-month average case finalisation period and a reduction in Supreme Court backlogs.
© 1997 Sydney Morning Herald