Two Courts, two civil initiatives, one purpose

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Two Courts, two civil initiatives, one purpose

• An evaluation of the introduction of new case
  management systems in the District Court of New
  South Wales and the County Court of Victoria
• Dr Ann Eyland, Law and Justice Foundation of NSW
• Professor Ted Wright, University of Newcastle

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OUTLINE

• The Two Courts
• Case processing time
• Disposition
• Litigant legal costs
• Perceptions of quality
• Conclusion

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Both the Sydney Registry of the District Court of
New South Wales and the Melbourne Registry of the
County Court of Victoria have seen episodic
influxes of new filings of civil matters since
1990.
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TIME The following graph shows median case
processing time by month of filing for new
defended liquidated or unliquidated claims
entered into the Courts databases. In NSW, this
means all such cases. In Victoria, this means
only Miscellaneous causes cases before 1994.
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TIME NSW Case management of motor accident
cases began on 1 July 1992. There had been case
management of selected commercial and
construction cases for some time. Case management
of all cases began on 1 January 1996.
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TIME VICTORIA Miscellaneous causes cases were
case managed from 1988. When case management was
introduced in Victoria, it affected pending cases
as well as new cases - hence the curve in the
graph.
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TIME using THE SURVEY DATA Solicitors for the
parties in all defended one solicitor per party
completed cases filed at each registry during
first quarter 94 and first quarter 97 were sent
questionnaires. About 1 in 5 responded in NSW
208 plaintiff solicitors, 263 defendant
solicitors in Victoria, 195 plaintiff solicitors
and 211 defendant solicitors.
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DISPOSITION The impact of case management on
settlement rate is a mystery as can be seen from
the extensive NSW data.
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DISPOSITION The Victorian data did not
illuminate the relationship if any between case
management and disposition type.
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COSTS In NSW, there has been an increase in
costs for plaintiffs rather than defendants. This
is partly explained by deregulation of fees, case
mix and the reduction in case processing time.
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COSTS In Victoria, the major reduction in
plaintiff costs for cases in the Damages list is
explained in part by faster processing of cases
destined to settle without mediation or
adjudication.
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SUMMARY The introduction of case management
regimes in the District Court of NSW and the
County Court of Victoria have

• reduced case processing time
• probably not affected disposition type
• contained costs in NSW and Victoria most likely
  because of speedier finalisation
• not affected quality - indeed has improved
  perceptions of timeliness, quality of court case
  management and overall fairness in both Courts.
• Special measures are needed to cope with large
  influxes of cases the possible consequence of
  changes in legislation, jurisdiction and the
  economic environment. In the past, these have
  overwhelmed both Courts.