The crisis confronting the ACT courts has deepened, with delays for criminal trials in the territory's Supreme Court pushed out until 2011, leaving some alleged criminals behind bars for years awaiting their day in court.
Lawyers have been warned by Supreme Court authorities to expect trial dates 16 months away, in February 2011, for alleged serious offenders, some of whom have already spent many months in remand detention.
The blow-out in waiting times has been described by a senior Canberra barrister as ''unacceptable''. But Attorney-General Simon Corbell said delays had not changed significantly and that the Government was working on ways to clear the jam.
One alleged offender, Timothy Noel Allen, accused of attacking two men with a hunting knife in Red Hill in September last year, in what a judge described a drug deal gone wrong, is not expected to get a trial date before February 2011.
Allen's barrister, Ken Archer, said that the delays were hurting the administration of justice in the territory.
''At the point of his trial, he [Allen] will have been in custody for two years and five months,'' Mr Archer said. ''That's unacceptable.''
Another detainee, Scott Alexander McDougall, accused of murdering two people in Downer last September, will have been locked up for more than two years when his trial comes around next October.
Mr Archer said that delays in the justice system were an imposition on everyone involved in a case, not just those accused of a crime.
''It's not just the accused who are affected, it's the other people connected to the matter,'' he said.
''Victims and those giving evidence, they have to cope with the uncertainty and apprehension for all that time.''
The veteran advocate also warned of an increase in bail applications from defendants arguing that their prolonged detention was in contravention of the Human Rights Act.
''I think we can reasonably anticipate a surge in bail applications towards the end of the year with detainees invoking the Human Rights Act, and the right to a speedy trial, in the absence of the court being able to meet its obligations under the Act,'' Mr Archer said.
The barrister joined Chief Justice Terence Higgins' call to appoint a fifth resident judge to the Supreme Court bench to take some of the pressure off the current four justices.
The ACT Government has ruled out such an appointment, saying that the existing judges should change their working practices before such an expensive appointment could be considered.
But Mr Archer said that without significant changes, the court would be failing in its most basic function the delivery of justice.
''A fifth resident judge would be a significant financial commitment. But if the interests of justice demands it, then they have to be able to fund the courts sufficiently,'' he said.
''The judges have been bagged as being somehow lazy or inefficient, but I believe they are hard working and conscientious.''
A spokesman for Mr Corbell said that the court's waiting times were about the same as they were a year ago and that there were some spaces for short matters one day or less to be listed before 2011.
The spokesman also said that a Supreme Court Working Group with members from the court, the government, the Bar Association and the Law Society had been formed to tackle the court's workload problems.
''The working group has looked at what type of matters come before the court, what areas can be improved by changes to rules or practice and what other resources are available to address workload pressures,'' the spokesman said.