The Department of Justice marked 50 years of the District Court of Western Australia last month (27 February) with a gala dinner and the release of a video to commemorate the milestone.
The Department said the gala dinner, hosted by the Law Society of Western Australia, had been postponed for a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Department’s Doing Right to All District Court anniversary video contains interviews with former District Court Judges on their experiences as well as a brief history of the Court.
“Since its founding in 1970 with four judges in response to a growing population, the District Court has played a crucial role in the State’s justice system,” the Department said.
“Now with 32 judges, the court conducts hundreds of trials each year across the breadth of Western Australia,” it said.
“Judges interviewed agreed that one constant in the Court’s history has been the quality of the personnel.”
In the Department’s anniversary video, former Chief Judge Kevin Hammond said the District Court occupied the middle range section of the criminal world, between the Supreme Court and the Magistrates’ Court, a section that was “growing like nothing else”.
“It’s where the majority of work lies – and the District Court has concentrated on that area,” Mr Hammond said.
Also featured in the video, former Chief Judge Antoinette Kennedy became the State’s first woman Judge when she joined the District Court in 1985.
“It was seven years before another woman was appointed, and then more women were appointed, and it simply changes the atmosphere,” Ms Kenny said.
The Department’s 5-minute Doing Right to All District Court anniversary video, with sound, can be accessed at this PS News link.
