The Effect of Appointing Additional Judges on District Court Finalisations

By Steve Yeong and Sara Rahman

In February 2019, the NSW Government appointed seven new judges to the NSW District Court (the DC7 reforms) as a measure to address the rising number of pending criminal matters. We examine whether the appointment of these judges resulted in an increase in the monthly number of finalised matters in the NSW District Criminal Court (DC). To do this, we compare DC finalisations before and after the reforms for six NSW courts who experienced an increase of at least 10 sitting weeks to eight NSW courts who did not experience any increase in sitting weeks following the reform. Monthly finalisations over the period 1 January 2014 to 30 September 2020 are examined.

Sydney, AUS: NSW Bureau Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, 2021. 23p.