THE High Court and the Labour Tribunal will get more judicial officers to clear a backlog of cases, if a funding request is approved by the Finance Branch and the Legislative Council.
The Judiciary is hoping to add three more permanent judges to the High Court bench and two presiding officers to the Labour Tribunal, plus support staff. The request estimates the cost to be more than $5.7 million a year.
A Judiciary spokesman said the appointments were one way to shorten the waiting time for cases to be heard and to improve management.
There is a backlog of 1,699 cases in the Labour Tribunal, with an average waiting time of 111 days - almost four times the statutory requirement of 30 days within which a case should be heard.
For the High Court, the average waiting period for civil and criminal cases is about eight months, two to three times the performance targets set by the Judiciary.
''The only way [to tackle the problem] is to increase the number of judges or else there will be a further lengthening of the waiting time,'' the spokesman said.
The establishment of the Labour Tribunal was last reviewed in October 1984, when the number of presiding officers was increased to seven.
