Should Judges have KPIs?

Well, slightly off topic, but, uh, we are going to discuss, on topic, should there be KPIs for judges?

Nice.

And I think this has come off the back of, again, news stories of, uh, people on bail committing further crimes, and I thought, should we actually have a KPI where judges are measured by the number of times someone is bailed and they commit an offense while on bail? I don't want a judge held to account ...

Well, at this stage, I wouldn't want a judge held to account as giving someone 15 years and, and they've got out on 12 on good behavior, and then they, they re-offend.

I think that that's probably a bridge too far.

But I think if someone's put before you and you bail them, and the next day they're committing crimes again, it should be a strike against you, and there should be a number that within a certain period, say the first 12 months, you know, three within the first 12 months, and maybe you're given a warning.

You know, a certain amount within a five-year period.

'Cause there has to be, at some point, there's accountability for the magistrates that don't seem to live with the consequences of their decisions within their courts.

Yes.

My only concern-

Then that's the end of the podcast.

Thanks everyone.

My only-

You have a right to be wrong.

[laughs]

My only concern here is, um, do they already have existing performance measures? And let's stick to Australia at the moment.

To the best of my knowledge, no.

No.

Okay.

Um, so they've got enormous amount of power.

The court process and the judicial process costs taxpayers lots of money, into the billions, yet, yet individual judges, uh, are mostly unmeasured, right? Is that a vital protection for them to be independent, not to be swayed by a potential incentive or disincentive, or is it a blind spot?

Uh, probably a little from column A, a little from column B.

Yep.

Uh, 'cause I, I do know of someone that was, um, moved out to a district to try and speed up some of the slow processes, uh, o- of what was going on there in terms of, um, cases being finalized.

So there's probably, you know, going back to your first question, are there, are there metrics? There's probably something just in terms of how long cases are taking to move through the system.

Well, slightly off topic, but, uh, we are going to discuss, on topic, should there be KPIs for judges?

Nice.

And I think this has come off the back of, again, news stories of, uh, people on bail committing further crimes, and I thought, should we actually have a KPI where judges are measured by the number of times someone is bailed and they commit an offense while on bail? I don't want a judge held to account ...

Well, at this stage, I wouldn't want a judge held to account as giving someone 15 years and, and they've got out on 12 on good behavior, and then they, they re-offend.

I think that that's probably a bridge too far.

But I think if someone's put before you and you bail them, and the next day they're committing crimes again, it should be a strike against you, and there should be a number that within a certain period, say the first 12 months, you know, three within the first 12 months, and maybe you're given a warning.

You know, a certain amount within a five-year period.

'Cause there has to be, at some point, there's accountability for the magistrates that don't seem to live with the consequences of their decisions within their courts.

Yes.

My only concern-

Then that's the end of the podcast.

Thanks everyone.

My only-

You have a right to be wrong.

[laughs]

My only concern here is, um, do they already have existing performance measures? And let's stick to Australia at the moment.

To the best of my knowledge, no.

No.

Okay.

Um, so they've got enormous amount of power.

The court process and the judicial process costs taxpayers lots of money, into the billions, yet, yet individual judges, uh, are mostly unmeasured, right? Is that a vital protection for them to be independent, not to be swayed by a potential incentive or disincentive, or is it a blind spot?

Uh, probably a little from column A, a little from column B.

Yep.

Uh, 'cause I, I do know of someone that was, um, moved out to a district to try and speed up some of the slow processes, uh, o- of what was going on there in terms of, um, cases being finalized.

So there's probably, you know, going back to your first question, are there, are there metrics? There's probably something just in terms of how long cases are taking to move through the system.