Sly of the Underworld: Victoria’s only chance of clearing court backlogs

Delays in Victoria’s courts have blown out, with COVID-19 shutdowns exacerbating existing backlogs.

John ‘Sly’ Silvester says there are 130,000 matters still to go before a magistrate, and 1700 County Court trials on hold.

He says Victoria is one of very few places still using an outdated system which is “not fit for purpose”.

“If 25 per cent of all county court judges post-COVID are assigned to deal with the backlog, and every trial was to go four just 10 days, it would take four years and three months to get rid of the backlog,” he told Ross and Russel.

And that timeline is if all offending from now on stopped until the backlog was dealt with.

Thankfully, the state government has agreed to pass legislation which Sly says may give our courts to catch up.

Press PLAY below to hear about the changes that could allow Victoria’s courts to clear backlogs