ACT Director of Public Prosecutions Jon White used his annual report to highlight a "critical" resource shortage in his office as an influx of domestic abuse matters and an additional Supreme Court judge meant prosecutors battled surging workloads.

The most striking increase his office had seen in the past year had been a "staggering" jump in the number of family violence prosecutions, which Mr White said stemmed from greater community awareness and more victims reporting offences.

Prosecutors launched 710 family violence cases in 2015-16, a 37 per cent rise from the previous 12 months and 207 more matters than in 2012.

"In the light of that, it has to be said that the small increase for family violence area of the office in the last budget was modest indeed, and unfortunately, will not compensate for the increase in work."

Mr White said the legal fraternity urged an overhaul of the Magistrates Court's family violence list, created to handle the rise in cases, as multiple adjournments created "unnecessary" delays and hearings were sometimes listed up to eight months ahead.

Family violence cases are the only matters to still have case management hearings, which were abolished for all other matters to improve efficiency in 2014, and Mr White said the resulting extra court dates exacerbated delays.

He said new laws, introduced in the territory this year, which allowed use of recorded police statements from victims as evidence in chief in family violence matters should mean cases were resolved more swiftly.

"It is to be hoped that the Magistrates Court can take up the opportunity presented by the new reforms to change its own listing practices to achieve greater efficiencies," Mr White said.

"I have to report – and I am afraid that looking back on past reports this is a theme which has continued for a number of years – that the Magistrates Court continues to be marked by inefficient practices."

That was in stark contrast to the Supreme Court, he said, where the practice of intensively listing trials for four or five-week blocks had worked to effectively ease chronic, longstanding backlogs in the past three years.

He recommended scrapping case management hearings for family violence matters, block-listing hearings, and taking advantage of the new recorded victim statements to streamline disclosure of material and reduce hearing times.

Mr White, who has been DPP since 2008, renewed persistent calls for a weekly afternoon traffic list staffed by paralegals, in a bid to churn through matters more speedily.

The suggestion was also floated in last year's report, when Mr White said his suggestions of a separate traffic list, night courts and intensive listing of hearings to boost the lower court's efficiency had fallen on deaf ears.

Mr White said prosecutors continued to run trials and appeals at record levels, with 47 trials in 2015-16 and another 68 matters which were committed to the higher court but later resulted in guilty pleas.

He said this year's long-awaited arrival of a fifth resident judge, Justice Michael Elkaim, significantly boosted the capacity of the Supreme Court, but also had not been matched with extra prosecutorial resources.

"The stark reality for my office has been that while the demands on the office have increased, resources have actually decreased through so-called 'efficiency dividends' and the like.

"The increase in the number of complex matters, the move towards keeping all prosecutions in-house, and the decrease in resources in real terms, will continue to put real pressure on the office."

A spokesman for Attorney-General Gordon Ramsay said the DPP's bid for additional funding in the next budget would be considered on its merits.

"The Attorney-General has already asked the Justice and Community Safety Directorate to undertake a review of the DPP's resourcing and workloads and provide a comparison with other jurisdictions."

Investment in the DPP had increased significantly in recent years, with extra funding towards the cost of the planned David Eastman retrial and the establishment of the work safety prosecutions unit, the spokesman said.