THE HOUSE of Representatives will tomorrow, consider sweeping legislation geared towards improving the operations of the Coroner's Court.
The Coroner's Amendment Act has already been passed in the Senate, resulting in the
Government getting high praise from human rights groups, which have long bemoaned the slow-running state of the Coroner's Court system.
The legislation will initiate a host of changes, including the appointment of designated police officers to oversee
coroners' cases. It will also require the appointment of
special bailiffs to serve summonses for witnesses, who, police have complained, are at times difficult to locate.
CAUSE OF DELAY
According to Senator A.J. Nicholson, minister of justice and attorney-general, the absence of such witnesses has been a major cause of delay in the
hearing of cases. Currently, there is a reported backlog of nearly 1,000 cases in the Coroner's Courts.
The Government also hopes to bolster the integrity of the jury pool through an attempt to
eliminate concerns about alleged 'professional jurors', who regularly reappear in the Coroner's Court and could potentially taint the
judicial process. Under the new legislation, jurors will be randomly selected from the jury list, and not by police officers, as is currently the case.
The legislative amendments will also allow forensic pathologists to observe post-mortems on behalf of the families of victims, as
well as allow those families to
challenge rulings and seek to have them overturned.
Dr. Peter Phillips, minister of national security, will pilot the legislation through the House.
