Legislation to reintroduce the option of trial without jury passed parliament to ease court backlog crisis

The option to have a trial without jury has passed the parliament in an effort to ease Victoria’s court backlog crisis following Covid lockdowns.

Prison vans queue outside the court. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Judge only criminal trials could return to Victoria as early as next week.

Legislation to reintroduce the option of trial without jury passed the parliament on Thursday in a bid to help the state’s court backlog crisis.

A record number of cases are now waiting to be heard while trial times have blown out to an estimated three years in the fallout of pandemic restrictions that saw courts grind to a halt.

There was a very low uptake of judge-only trials when they were first introduced in 2020.

But an analysis of trial outcomes found they led to a higher proportion of acquittals.

Under the Justice Legislation Amendment (Trial by Judge Alone and Other Matters) legislation more people will also be able to appear in court remotely.

The commencement of de novo appeal reforms will also be delayed.

The reforms have been backed by the Law Institute of Victoria, the Criminal Bar Association and Victoria Legal Aid.

LIV President Tania Wolff said last month that judge-alone trials were a sensible approach to expediting the resolution of criminal matters.

“A trial by one’s peers is a fundamental right in the Australian legal system, and any move to restrict the availability of a trial by jury should be carefully considered,” Ms. Wolff said.

“But with the safeguards in place that the accused consents to a judge-alone trial, the court is satisfied that the accused has obtained legal advice on whether to give that consent, and that the court itself considers that it is in the interests of justice to make the order, the LIV supports this decision to extend the option of judge-alone trials for a further 12 months.”