The Canberra Times has obtained 17 previously unreleased submissions to a review of the territory's Coroner's Act in 2009, part of the response to the lengthy coronial inquiry into the 2003 Canberra bushfires.

Almost all respondents urged a chief coroner be funded for the court, including four magistrates, the then heads of ACT Policing, Legal Aid ACT, the Director of Public Prosecutions and barrister Ken Archer, who has been involved in hundreds of "coronials".

Now president of the ACT Bar Association, Mr Archer said his personal view remained unchanged, though he was not speaking for the bar on the issue.

In 2009, Mr Archer wrote that the lack of a dedicated coroner and the "failure to prioritise appropriately has seen inappropriate (and for the families) soul-destroying delays in the hearings of inquests".

One group of mothers with personal experience of such delays in the coronial system spoke out recently, as they push for more resources and reforms for the court.

While Mr Archer wrote inquests could be "inconvenient and cause significant political embarrassment"; the process was "of critical importance in ensuring that deaths are adequately and appropriately investigated".

"In a community where there are few bodies exercising independent review of government functions and fewer still who have the resources to pursue their mandate of review with vigour, coronial processes have a significance in the ACT which is greater than other jurisdictions," the submission reads.

"The politics of this review cannot and should not be overlooked. It is hoped that any changes will be informed by concerns about the public interest, rather than what might suit the political interests of the government of the day."

Of the potential for a dedicated coroner to be appointed, Mr Archer wrote that "the answer should be 'yes'".

"The piecemeal approach to the Coroner's role cannot be tolerated any further," he wrote.

While such appointments are made by the ACT's Chief Magistrate, Lorraine Walker, she has consistently called for extra funds to be able support an additional magistrate to make the appointment, calls which have so far fallen on deaf ears in the Legislative Assembly.

The justice directorate released all non-confidential submissions to the review of the Act on request, but has refused to release the final report of the review, or detail its recommendations, claiming it was "cabinet-in-confidence" material.

In the years since, numerous families - like that of Ann Finlay, who faced a seven-year-long wait for the inquest report into her son Paul Fennessy's death - have waited several years for inquests to be completed.

The little data available on "pending cases", for 2015-16, showed 108 cases waited less than 12 months, 23 cases between 12 months and two years and 27 cases on the books waiting more than two years to be "finalised".

The court's annual report also showed the "median days to finalisation" of coronial cases fell from 83 days in 2014-15 to to 75 days in 2015-16.

But Mr Archer said such measures were "close to meaningless", and there was little longer term trend data, or other better qualitative measures available.

He said if he was looking for a date to be set down for an inquest hearing now, "late 2018" would be the earliest available.

While Mr Archer noted some improvements in the years since, particularly moving the Coroner's Court's counsel assisting from public prosecutions to the court, he stood by his original submission.

The government has made other changes since, including legal changes to stop coroners being forced to investigate every fire, and reducing the court's jurisdiction to focus on more systemic cases.

But few extra resources have been promised or delivered to the coronial system in the past eight years, and one key 24 hour trauma support service for families was cut in 2016, in favour of a working hours' counselling service.

Mr Archer said his personal view was that a dedicated coroner would "allow for greater specialisation and consistency in case management".

"By the same token, we know the government's been approached to appoint another magistrate, we understand that discussion is ongoing, but we don't know how the Chief Minister (Andrew Barr) will respond," he said.

"Ultimately, it is a resourcing issue for the government to work out, and we know the pit is not bottomless."

Attorney-General Gordon Ramsay has said the government is examining the Magistrate's Court resources "overall" as part of "a comprehensive examination of resourcing across the justice system".

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