Whats New for lawyers providing Legal Aid

This is the What's New for lawyers providing legal aid archive for news items from 2026.

New legislation goes live 1 February 2026 to improve case management within the District Court at the pre-trial stage

22 January 2026

New legislation goes live 1 February 2026 to improve case management within the District Court at the pre-trial stage

The Judicature (Timeliness) Legislation Amendment Bill, introduced as part of Budget 2025, has now passed and will come into effect on 1 February 2026. This omnibus Bill contains several items to improve court timeliness by freeing up judicial resources, reducing duplication, and unnecessary churn.

One of the changes is an amendment to the Criminal Procedure Act 2011 (the Act). The new s156A of the Act will allow a District Court Judge to direct that some or all charges against the same defendant be managed together at the pre-trial stage (including the administrative and review stages), in the same District Court location.

An overview of what this change means is below:

  • The judicial direction will only apply to new proceedings. This is to ensure that it will not disrupt proceedings currently underway. 
  • The judicial direction only applies to pre-trial proceedings. Charges will go back to the original court of filing for trial and/or sentencing, unless the judge directs that the charge is transferred to a different District Court location.
  • The judiciary will consider requests to combine proceedings on a case-by-case basis.

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