Ms Angela Denning:

Regarding additional judges, we could have one judge for every case. In an ideal world we would have judges waiting for cases to come in, as happens in some countries. That is not the system we have here.

One of the recommendations of the judicial planning working group is that the number of judges is reviewed every number of years and that a system is put in place to do that. Traditionally, if a backlog of work grew in an area, the president of that court would write through the Attorney General and say we need additional judges. That is not an ideal situation. You are always reactive. Ideally, we would have enough judges in place to ensure the backlogs do not develop.