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• manage court facilities and staff, including buildings, security and ancillary
services such as registries, libraries and transcription services
• provide case management services, including client information, scheduling and
case flow management
• enforce court orders through the sheriff’s department or a similar mechanism.
Roles and responsibilities
State and Territory court levels
There is a hierarchy of courts within each State and Territory. The supreme court
hears disputes of greater seriousness than those heard in the other courts. It also
develops the law and operates as a court of judicial review or appeal. For the
majority of jurisdictions, the hierarchy of courts are as outlined below (although
Tasmania and the territories do not have a district/county court):
• the supreme court
• the district/county court
• the magistrates court.
Within certain court levels, a number of specialist courts (such as drug courts and
children’s courts) aim to improve the responsiveness of courts to the special needs
of particular clients. Tribunals can also improve responsiveness and assist in
alleviating the workload of courts — for example, small claims tribunals may assist
in shifting work away from a magistrates court.
Differences in court jurisdictions, along with the use of specialist courts and
tribunals, can mean that the allocation of cases to courts varies across states and
territories (boxes 6.1–6.3). As a result, the seriousness and complexity of cases
heard in each jurisdiction’s equivalent court often vary. Any performance
comparison needs to account for these factors.
6.2 REPORT ON
GOVERNMENT
SERVICES 2005