Court Security

05/03/2018

In the news

Further to the message in last Wednesday’s In Brief, yesterday’s Sunday Telegraph ran a story entitled "Lawyers court controversy with demand to bypass metal detectors," which included comments from the president regarding concerns over court security. The president’s full statement to the Sunday Telegraph was as follows.

Court security

As a result of complaints received from members of the NSW Bar in relation to delays in entering Court buildings in Parramatta and in Sydney at the Downing Centre and John Madison Tower, as well as the treatment of lawyers undertaking security screening, I requested that the Sheriff of NSW attend a meeting to discuss these concerns.

As a result of those discussions, an arrangement has been put in place to deal with concerns or complaints raised by the legal profession. We will monitor the effectiveness of this arrangement.

A fundamental concern of the Bar Association is to ensure that court proceedings are not adversely affected because of the extensive delays which practitioners are experiencing when entering certain buildings. This leads to unnecessary time and cost being wasted which is not fair to the public of NSW.

Whilst the Bar completely supports security screening, such screening needs to take place in a common sense and courteous manner. After all, the Courts are the workplaces of lawyers.