Victoria’s courts achieve record clearance rate

Victoria’s courts are clearing cases at a record pace, despite having the largest number of new cases lodged in 10 years.

Attorney General Robert Clark said the Report on Government Services showed Victoria achieved the highest clearance rate on record across the state’s courts.

The clearance rate measures the number of cases finalised in the courts as a percentage of new cases lodged.

The report showed Victoria recorded a clearance rate of 107 per cent. The Supreme Court, County Court, Magistrates’ Court and Children’s Court finalised more than 342,000 cases in the 2012/13 financial year. That compares to total case lodgements of just over 320,000.

“This shows that reforms to our court system are working to help improve the clearance of both criminal and civil cases,” Mr Clark said.

While the courts are clearing cases at a record pace, a range of efficiencies are reducing the cost of finalising cases.

The cost per finalisation reduced by five per cent in the 2012/13 financial year to $782 per case.

“These results show that not only are our courts able to provide access to justice more quickly, they are also doing so more efficiently,” Mr Clark said.

The results come as the Victorian Government legislates to create a new statutory entity, Court Services Victoria, which will provide administrative support to the courts free of departmental and political control and accountable directly to Parliament.

The legislation will give the courts and VCAT greater freedom to manage their own operations and to introduce improvements and innovations.

The new body is expected to come into full operation from July 1 this year.