Chief Justice Chris Kourakis warns he can't make budget cuts fearing case backlog Chief Justice Chris Kourakis fears cutting judges and magistrates will lead to case backlog. CUTTING the number of judges and magistrates is the only way hefty budget cuts demanded by the Government can be met, the state's most senior judicial officer says. Chief Justice Chris Kourakis has warned that such a move will result in a blowout in court backlogs, increased costs and risks to community safety as more defendants await trial free on bail. He said if the budget cuts demanded by the Government were rigidly enforced, it would create a "critical situation in terms of court functioning." His disclosure comes just days after Police Commissioner Gary Burns warned that police numbers were under threat because of planned budget cuts to SAPOL of $150 million in the next four years. The Budget last year imposed a 7.3 per cent cut in the Courts Administration Authority budget. It forced it to find $7.3 million in savings by 2016. That blows out even further with increased costs such as rent and long service leave not funded. After declining several requests to discuss his budgetary situation over recent weeks, Chief Justice Kourakis told The Advertiser the CAA could not sustain further cuts to ancillary staff following the loss of 48 positions resulting from the 2008/09 budget. The numbers of administrative staff we need are linked to the number of judges and the number of lodgements. We can't then reduce staff and keep judges because effectively there is no one to support the work of the judges," he said. The stage has been reached whereby if we cut support staff any further we will reduce the output, the productivity of the judicial officers. As a result of our discussions we have formed the view the most effective way of achieving the cuts was reduction in judicial numbers. It is not something we support, we don't, we oppose reductions in judicial numbers. Chief Justice Kourakis revealed the CAA had engaged a consultant and a lengthy report outlining suggested savings initiatives had been presented to Attorney-General John Rau. The report, entitled the Courts Sustainable Budget Submission, outlines a number of measures for consideration by the government. While Chief Justice Kourakis would not reveal its precise content, it includes proposals for the reductions in judges and magistrates, potential changes to the jurors system, circuit courts frequency and the existing range of courts. "All of the measures were considered, including the massive disadvantages with some, but no decision has been made by the CAA," he said. That is because the most obvious way to achieve the saving is by reduction in judicial numbers, but that is not a decision we make, it is the Attorney who can decide that. Chief Justice Kourakis said any cuts to judicial numbers would be a "false economy" because it would result in additional costs in other areas of the justice system. This is a really important point. Assuming police numbers are not reduced that means in the major area of our work, criminal prosecutions, we can expect lodgements to remain the same or to increase," he said. If at the same time judicial numbers are reduced, then you have to wonder about what the effectiveness of maintaining police numbers really is because the waiting times to go to trial will increase, victims will be left hanging with their matters unresolved longer. To try and deal with the backlog we will overlist matters hoping they will resolve in some way. On top of that those defendants remanded will be in custody for longer, transferring effectively the cost to corrections. If defendants are given bail and there will be increasing pressure to give them bail if the jails are crowded, some of them will get bail because it becomes oppressive to keep them in for too long. You can't hide from the fact you are increasing the risk to the community by having defendants on bail. Mr Rau last night said he was "working my way through this with the Chief Justice."