John F. Kennedy, quoting the American linguist Benjamin Zimmer, once said, “The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word ‘crisis’. One brush stroke stands for danger, the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger — but recognise the opportunity.” His interpretation of the Chinese characters is now widely recognised as being incorrect, but his wisdom about a crisis presenting people with unique opportunities was insightful.
Last year, the pandemic crisis and an enforced lockdown provided a unique opportunity for judges to develop a virtual court and talk about how that might work. Without doubt, technology was our saviour throughout the lockdown period; it allowed for safe access to courts and judges, so the rule of law could be maintained.
It was no surprise judge-led initiatives were used to harness technology and to keep our courts open and safely available online. The intense dedicated and hard work of Noel Cocurullo, in this space, deserves commendation. He produced a workable solution under urgency, adapting electronic tools by bending them to our judicial purpose, and for a fraction of the cost of earlier attempts.
There is a good lesson in his work. Giving judges a say and trusting their collective wisdom, borne of daily experience, will always produce workable and well-designed solutions that provide a clear structure and purpose to the court process. We need to build on Noel’s success in other ways. The Criminal Process Improvement Programme and Te Ao Mārama initiative are areas worthy of our contribution.
However, from a judicial perspective while file velocity and closure are to be encouraged these cannot be the only considerations for improvement. There is a human face in every case that managed justice cannot ignore. Nor can the system ignore judges’ knowledge of the things that matter and the things that must endure to ensure public confidence in our decisions and so our courts, such as judicial independence. As I was writing this I received an email that reminded me there is another human face in every case. The judge.
The release of Rob Ronayne’s inquest report is a sombre reminder that:
“High workload, difficulty accessing leave, professional isolation, limited management support, a culture expectant of high performance with low transparency and high public expectation are all relevant factors” to judicial service. Courts flourish where judges and their families are resilient, and where strong supportive judicial relationships are encouraged.
The opportunity from Rob’s crisis is to heed the experts' call for a minimum quarterly review of case lists and duties, especially when the District Court is aware of professional or personal challenges an individual judge is experiencing. Rostering and scheduling of our work is important, file velocity and closure is important, but so, too, is the calibration of a judge’s case load so resilience is not compromised. This must be our ‘patu’ in the sand in this year of the ox.
So, 新 Xīn 年 nián 快 kuài 乐 lè!. Happy Chinese New Year, and I hope, like JANZ, your year of the ox keeps you as resilient and determined as he is.
