Courts prepare for coronavirus D-day

Changes are coming to Brisbane magistrates courts with meetings being held this morning that will decide the changes to be made for safe court appearances during the coronavirus crisis

Gympie Magistrates Court

MANAGERS at major courthouses in the southeast are being given new directions today on how to keep justice flowing at all magistrates courthouses.

Cleveland, Holland Park, Pine Rivers, Redcliffe District, Richlands, Sandgate, Wynnum, Beenleigh and Longreach Magistrates Courts will find out this afternoon how they will continue to hear cases via video link or telephone starting on Monday.

The Practice Direction, announced on Wednesday night, will allow 43 Magistrates Courts to continue to operate under local guidelines issued by a Regional Coordinating Magistrate.

The Regional Coordinator Magistrate will determine whether any matters will be heard from a nominated court.

Brisbane, Caboolture and Beenleigh are nominated courts in the southeast.

Chief Magistrate Terry Gardiner was due to reveal the outcome of a phone hookup held this morning between managers from various magistrates courts.

Each Regional Coordinating Magistrate will issue guidelines for their region.

Magistrate Kay Philipson will oversee Gold Coast and Beenleigh and Deputy Chief Magistrate Janelle Brassington will oversee the Brisbane areas.

Beenleigh Magistrate Louise Shephard was at this morning’s meeting.

It is likely custody hearings will be adjourned.

Earlier in the day, staff at the courthouse at Beenleigh, which also houses the District and Family courts, were waiting anxiously to find out if the courts will close next week.

Although today, it is business as usual at Beenleigh, one of the southeast’s busiest courthouses, lists of those appearing have been shorter than usual for this time of year.

Staff, speaking anonymously, said the number of people scheduled to appear was diminishing as more cases were being adjourned.

“We’ve seen some cases being adjourned for two months and some for three months - we will know more when the meeting is finished this morning.”

It was business as usual today at Richlands magistrates court with a session of the Children’s Court held.

While the three cases set were “running as normal” behind the scenes at Richlands staff were waiting for guidance on how to handle the situation next week.

It was expected suburban magistrates will tell their staff and police prosecutors tomorrow (Friday) how the courts will run next week.

Arrangements already released for the Brisbane Magistrates Court and Roma St Arrest Court said that all callovers would be “conducted on the papers without personal or telephone appearances required”.

This morning, staff at Holland Park Magistrates Court were mostly unaware of any pending changes.

Signs on alternating seats asked people not sit, to enforce social isolation, but there were only a dozen matters heard, mostly drink or disqualified driving cases.

There was also hand sanitiser available but no defendants appeared to use it.

About half the matters were adjourned, including one until next week.

At Cleveland Magistrates Court, anyone who wanted an adjournment left their details and were told to go home.

A dedicated local legal practitioner acted as de facto duty lawyer to help process the dozen or so defendants who arrived in person, as the face-to-face duty lawyer service operated by Legal Aid Queensland had been suspended on Monday night.

While there were a few three-month adjournments, Magistrate Deborah Vasta did list several mentions and pleas for dates in April and May. The defendants and their lawyer would appear in court via telephone.

Speaking in court, Mrs Vasta said she didn’t want to return after a three-month break with a bottleneck of cases.