Poor record for Perth court
20 Jun 05
Only one out of every 20 trials at Perth District Court takes place on scheduled date, justices report
Only one in 20 of trials in Perth District Court went ahead on the scheduled date, in the first four months of the year.
The annual report by the court's JPs showed that twice as many people have their cases dropped by the Crown as have the trial go ahead. Of almost 300 cases set down for trial, only 152 continued from the intermediate diet to the trial diet, and only 15 of those actually went to trial on the date set down.
In 45 cases the accused pled guilty on the day of their trial, in 30 a not guilty plea was accepted or the case deserted or not called, and in 14 the accused failed to appear.
The report points out the huge inconvenience to a large number of potential witnesses and concluded that improvements to court procedures "still have a long way to go".
The report also notes that the introduction of Reliance escorts had gone relatively smoothly with only a few early teething problems.