A.9 Analysis of Agency Performance

Supreme Court and Appellate Activities

Supreme Court

A record number of Supreme Court trials were conducted this year. In the twenty second year of operation of the Office some 72 trials were finalised. To give some perspective on the enormity of that achievement, the long term average for the first 21 years was 34.8 trials per year. Indeed the last three years have been the three highest years in terms of trial numbers. Previous to that the highest number was 42.

To put this in perspective, here are the figures for the number of trials conducted in the last 5 years:

The reporting period does include the tail end of the Blitz, which was detailed in the last report. However, the large number of trials reflects an upswing in Supreme Court work generally, and a concerted effort by the Court to increase the throughput of work.

A great variety of offences were tried including murders, armed robberies, conspiracies to rob and serious sexual offences.

Consistent with the firm policy of the current Director, all trials were prosecuted in-house, in contrast to the practice of former years when many matters were briefed out at significant cost. The prosecution of matters in-house has many benefits, not the least of which is the saving to the community from having to brief matters out. This is dealt with elsewhere in this report. Other benefits include the increase in skills for officers conducting their own matters and a greater responsiveness to the needs of victims and other witnesses.

Of the trials in which verdicts were delivered, some 57% resulted in guilty verdicts. This is particularly pleasing when one considers that many matters originally set for trial result in pleas of guilty just before trial, in the face of a strong Crown case.

Indeed, completed trials (that is matters that actually run to trial) only tell part of the overall story. The Office often does a considerable amount of work on a matter, only to have an accused person plead guilty at a very late stage.

In the initial phase after committal - the first phase of preparation - the prosecution must prepare file and serve a case statement, an indictment and associated documentation. The second phase of preparation involves the setting of a trial date (which involves a court attendance) issuing and service of subpoenas, the arranging for witnesses to attend court, including arranging travel and accommodation for interstate witnesses. This second phase also includes DPP officers chasing up police for extra statements and for additional enquiries to be followed up on, and also directions hearings in court. The third phase in the few weeks before trial involves intensive work by counsel allocated by the Crown and their instructing officer in reading up on the case, proofing witnesses, familiarising themselves with exhibits etc and preparing to present the case.