Judges' union pleads for end to 'unreasonable' workloads

'Mentality of procrastination'

In a speech to the HS Nicholas Dinner club in Melbourne, Mr Heydon pointed out the two main English commercial courts had no judgments in 2017 that took more than 12 months to deliver after the end of the hearing. He said 14 judges across 32 cases in the Federal Court had taken more than a year; it was seven judges in 13 cases at the NSW Supreme Court.

He suggested there was "a mentality of procrastination" and warned against "a torpid shared culture of slackness, languor and drift".

Mr Heydon noted judges in these courts being paid about $450,000 a year and said: "They owe the state some service."

Justice Mark Weinberg of the Victorian Supreme Court gave a speech on Saturday that criticised Mr Heydon and the methodology he adopted with his statistics. He declined to provide a copy to The Australian Financial Review.

Some judicial officers told Legal Affairs the focus should be on how judges manage their time and how they are managed by heads of jurisdiction, especially as delays build up.

There is also concern that scheduling of cases does not give judges enough time to write judgments. Heads of courts can sometimes be reluctant to press judges for fear of being seen to interfere with their independence. However, some senior lawyers regard this as an excuse to avoid scrutiny.

Structural reform

Governments are increasingly reluctant to throw more money at courts unless they believe it will have an impact. Attorney-General Christian Porter has rejected calls for extra funds and judges to ease delays of up to three years in family cases, saying it was "now well past time that this funding is accompanied by fundamental structural reform".

Last week incoming Family Court chief justice Will Alstergren said he would join the profession in arguing for more resources, but only after the planned reforms had been bedded down.

"We must be realistic and pragmatic in our approach," he told a family law conference in Brisbane. "We need to look at what can be done within our present means, the resources we currently have. How are they best allocated? That doesn't stop us from asking for more resources, but it must be done in an informed way and with adequate analysis of the benefit of such resources."

Mr Heydon's speech follows an article published by UK think tank Policy Exchange earlier this year in which he said the judicial system was "rotten with excessive delay".

"Some [judges] are appallingly slow, through inefficiency or laziness or indecisiveness," he wrote.

Justice Kelly takes over from Justice Robert Beech-Jones of the NSW Supreme Court. Justice Glenn Martin of the Queensland Supreme Court is the new vice-president.