Victims and their relatives are unable to access information held on ACT Supreme Court databases, meaning they often miss important court dates and are left without information on appearances, bail conditions, charges, or pleas.

In many cases, support workers and victims are dependent on the goodwill of police or prosecutors to keep them informed of the progress of their case.

This has prompted Victims of Crime Commissioner John Hinchey to apply to the ACT Supreme Court for limited access to their databases, to ensure victims are kept adequately informed.

Victim Support ACT is currently allowed restricted access to the Magistrates Court database, but it has been refused access to information held by the territory's higher court.

A spokeswoman for Attorney-General Simon Corbell said that access to information was a decision for the courts and details on the Supreme Court database were not released to victims due to privacy concerns.

But the spokeswoman said the government is investigating how such access might be facilitated.

''The government has made a commitment of $9.5 million for the replacement of that [ACT Supreme Court] system, and it is anticipated that the new system will allow for partitioned access,'' the spokeswoman said. But that may come too late for many victims.

Mr Hinchey said it was an area of frustration for those affected by crime, and said it was something his agency was trying to improve.

''You can cover things effectively 90 per cent of the time, but if you miss one or two things, it causes heartache for people, and it's difficult to explain to them how they were forgotten,'' he said.

He said victims, because they were not party to proceedings, were kept on the periphery of the justice system.

''We're not part of the system, we're not closely involved in it, we're not necessary to be there for it to occur, so … despite the goodwill of the [Australian Federal Police] and the [Director of Public Prosecutions], at times, things get missed,'' he said.

Mr Hinchey has advocated for a rights-based approach to including victims in the justice system.

''Our guiding principles in the Victims of Crime Act set out what victims should be told and when they should be told information,'' he said.

''They're not enforceable by law, and without that enforcement mechanism, or a rights-based mechanism, things get missed.''

Such a rights-based framework was explored some years ago, but is still in its early stages.

Victim support officers have had read-only access to the Magistrates Court database.

The case management system allows them to view restricted information, so they can tell victims things such as court dates, bail conditions and pleas.

The access is subject to a strict agreement that support workers will only access information regarding clients of the Victim Support ACT service.