NSW Courts for Sale

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Fancy owning an historic country courthouse?

If so, your dream could soon become a reality, with NSW Attorney-General Gabrielle Upton hinting that some of the state’s aging courthouses might soon be auctioned off.

According to Ms Upton, around 20% criminal cases in NSW are listed at the Downing Centre and Parramatta Courts, which are struggling to keep up with demand. Meanwhile, courts outside the Sydney metropolitan region face the opposite problem, with some sitting for five days or less each month due to a lack of cases.

The imbalance is reportedly due to the fact that around 85% of the population lives within 50km of the coast – but less than half of the state’s courts are located there.

According to the Attorney-General, the average age of a courthouse in NSW is 100 years – and the state government is spending millions each year to maintain them.

Ms Upton has foreshadowed the closure of several regional courts, with money be redirected towards developing metropolitan courts. She is of the view that: ‘courts need to be located where the demands for justice and types of justice are now and will be in the future, not where the demand was 100 years ago.’

Recent Redevelopments

Recent years have seen several court precincts redeveloped to accommodate for increasing demand.

In January, 300 bricks from the Sheriff’s office of the historic old Wagga Wagga courthouse were auctioned off to raise money for a specialist mental health nurse at a local facility named Sunflower House.

The old Wagga court was demolished to make way for an upgraded precinct, which is expected to cost $17 million.

Work on a new two-storey court began in November 2014 and is expected to be completed by May 2016. It is designed to accommodate twice as many cases as the old facility.

Newcastle’s iconic old courthouse is also expected to be auctioned off in the New Year to make way for a new court at Civic, which will open around the same time. Upon completion, the $90 million new justice precinct is expected to be ‘the largest and most technologically-advanced facility outside Sydney,’ incorporating ten large courtrooms, two tribunal rooms and 14 holding cells, as well as advanced ‘perimeter security’.

In Sydney, the $300 million Parramatta Justice Precinct opened in 2008, making it the third largest legal precinct in Australia. The new state-of-the-art facility boasts a dedicated children’s court complex, and a separate District Court building which allows many more jury trials to take place than before the redevelopment. Offices for the Community Justice Centre, the Legal Aid Commission and the Registry for Births, Deaths and Marriages are also conveniently contained within the precinct.

A much-needed refurbishment of Sydney’s Downing Centre courts is also underway; with the $29 million project being staged over five years. The new development will feature an additional court to accommodate several co-defendants, new jury and hearing rooms, new registry offices and a new judge’s library.

The refurbishment will complement the new inner-city Children’s Court, which is scheduled to open in 2017 after the closure of the aging Bidura Courthouse.

Opposition to the Sell-Off

Labor Justice spokesperson Paul Lynch opposes selling off government assets, saying ‘there are serious threats to the existence of local courts in country areas because of budget cuts. The attorney might be better advised to concentrate on these crises.’

His comments come on the back of the 2014 annual review of the NSW Local Courts, in which Chief Magistrate Graeme Henson cautioned that a lack of available magistrates means that courts ‘may have no alternative than to manage the outcome through a reduction in attendance at some of the smaller courts in country locations.’

Mr Lynch has also criticised the Attorney-General’s failure to name the country courts which will be closed, and those which will have their services reduced.

But Ms Upton has hit back, saying that ‘the Chief Magistrate, not the government, has responsibility for reviewing the sitting and circuit arrangements of the Local Court annually and monitors demand.’

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About Ugur Nedim

Ugur Nedim is an Accredited Specialist Criminal Lawyer and Principal at Sydney Criminal Lawyers®, Sydney’s Leading Firm of Criminal & Traffic Defence Lawyers.

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