Accused people in custody in the ACT can expect a wait of 2 months before trial.
This is an increase of nearly one month from December last year, according to the latest figures issued by the ACT Law Society.
Accused not in custody can now expect to wait 16 months for a trial.
The waiting times underline recent pleas from judges and the profession for the appointment of a fourth resident judge for the ACT Supreme Court.
The society regularly monitors the time between charges and trial in criminal cases and readiness for trial and trial in civil cases.
Its latest figures compare December, 1991, and March this year.
In criminal cases, people in custody can wait 2.58 months up 0.89 months and those not in custody 16.4 months up 2.71 months. The figures exclude cases where the delay is the fault of the accused.
In civil cases the wait between a certificate of readiness for trial and the trial is now 9.51 months, up 0.11 of a month for a judge matter and 7.57 up 0.68 for a master’s hearing.
In March 83 people awaited criminal trial (up 2) and 15 awaited sentence up 3.
To give an idea of the court’s workload, last year 291 certificates of readiness for civil trials were filed, though many cases were settled and at any one time more than 80 people await criminal trail and up to 20 await sentence. Nearly all the load is carried by three resident judges.