Judge Robyn Tupman calls for court resources in the face of pandemic

A senior Sydney judge says the government must allocate resources to support courts during the pandemic, slamming the current “shoddy internet and sticky notes.”

A leading Sydney judge has taken aim at the NSW Justice Department for the poor internet quality and inadequate systems in place to keep courts running during the pandemic.

In one of her cases, a defendant had to put a sticky note over the camera from jail while an alleged child victim gave evidence in court, to satisfy the rule they cannot be in court at the same time, Judge Robyn Tupman told a court.

Last week at the end of a judgement, Ms Tupman questioned why the NSW Bar Association (The Bar) - who advocate for lawyers - had not pushed harder for resources at Sydney’s Downing Centre, telling the court video appearances were likely a “thing of the future”.

Judge Robyn Tupman has called for more resources to be allocated to assist courts to run during Covid.

“And I have to say, and I do wish The Bar would take this up more, that the systems that we have in place here, in the busiest trial court in Australia, doing possibly among the most serious criminal cases in Australia, are not particularly good. And they could be much better...frankly I think that is something that would be worth allocating a lot more resources to because it’s likely to be a thing of the future,“ Ms Tupman said.

Ms Tupman’s judgement was interrupted twice because a lawyer had dropped off the video link.

“I’m involved in other organisations where we have meetings that are international and the quality of the connections seem to be better than If I’m trying to get a connection across the road to Samuel Griffiths Chambers,” she told the court.

Ms Tupman also used the time to air other issues facing the courts due to the pandemic, including the fact jury trials were currently unable to run.

The Downing Centre on Liverpool Rd is Australia’s busiest trial court and should be funded properly, says Ms Tupman. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Nikki Short

She said jury trials were essential to the justice system and quicker than judge-alone trials.

The major issue, Ms Tupman said, was not the size of the court rooms, but the size of the jury room, and ensuring there was enough space for jurors to social distance while deliberating.

“We have to continue with jury trials...juries are fabulous. They do an excellent job and make sensible decisions all the time. And so do judges. But it takes much longer for a judge to make a decision in a judge alone trial,” she told the court.

She told the court in country NSW, they are having to use community facilities - like a church in Tyree and a bowling club in Armidale - to empanel jurors, while adhering to Covid social distancing restrictions.

This involves dozens of people being called to court, with only 12 chosen to be part of a trial.

NSW Bar Association president Michael McHugh SC told The Daily Telegraph The Bar acknowledged the need for proper resourcing of the courts.

He said there was information updated regularly on their web page to assist members with Covid related issues.

The NSW Justice Department did not respond before the deadline.

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