Media

Vic allots more funds for justice

The Australian Financial Review 09 May 2008
By JAMES EYRES

Victoria will increase spending on the justice system to boost its efficiency and introduce a pilot scheme later this year to involve more judges in mediations. The Victorian budget papers reveal increased funding for “dispensing justice” of 18 per cent, to $415.2 million; 17.8 million has been allocated for the development of new low-cost dispute resolution initiatives, while $3.7 million will go towards judge-led mediation pilots for the Supreme and county courts. “"What Victorians want is their disputes settled, and they want them resolved as efficiently as possible, and at the lowest cost possible,” Attorney-General Rob Hulls said.

"We have to question whether the adversarial system in its current form is still the most appropriate way of resolving disputes. We have to think outside the square and implement initiatives aimed at improving access to justice for all Victorians by making processes for resolving disputes quicker, cheaper and more effective.” The budget also provided extra funding for the Victorian Magistrates Court and Children’s Court and additional resources for dealing with sexual assault matters. The Law Institute of Victoria welcomed the budget, which was delivered on Tuesday, but said the lack of extra funding for redeveloping the Supreme Court meant it was in increasing danger of losing more civil litigation work to other states.

The judge-led mediation will be based upon programs in Canada, which Mr. Hulls said had been successful. “A judge heading up the mediation has not been tried before and I expect we will see some outstanding results,” Mr. Hulls said. Angela O’Brien, president of the Institute of Arbitrators and Mediators Australia, said involving judges in mediations was “a great step forward” and that lawyers working in the traditional adversarial system should broaden their skills in order to offer their clients alternatives to litigation.

Mr. Hulls appointed barrister Peter Vickery, QC, an IAMA member, to the Victorian Supreme Court on Tuesday. Mr. Hulls said that the profession was largely supportive of his reforms. “People generally realize that the reform train has well and truly left the station, and you are either on it, or you are left behind at the station,” he said. “An most people want to be on that train.

We gratefully acknowledge the permission from James Eyres at The Australian Financial Review to reprint this article.