Coast in Supreme need

GLITTER Strip lawyers have made renewed pleas for the Supreme Court to sit on the Gold Coast.

They say they spend hours in gridlock on the M1 travelling to the state’s highest court in Brisbane and some have resorted to paying external contractors to courier documents to the River City to avoid charging clients for a full day of work.

Former Southport District Court judge John Newton echoed the calls.

“(We are) Australia’s sixthlargest city and when you look at the size of the places where the Supreme Court does visit, they are nowhere near the size of the Gold Coast,” he said.

Danielle Heable, of Havas and Dib Lawyers, said attending the Brisbane Supreme Court often came at additional cost to clients.

“In some cases, clients might incur a half-daily or daily fee because our lawyers are in Brisbane all day,” she said.

Gold Coast District Law Association president Anna Morgan said the timing of court sittings often made the journey to Brisbane a four-hour round trip in peak-hour traffic.

“This means added difficulties for parties or witnesses, particularly if they have to take time away from their jobs or have child-related commitments,” she said. Queensland Law Society president Christine Smyth said the law society would support a visiting Supreme Court judge on the Coast if there was enough work to keep them busy.

“If it’s worth having the Commonwealth Games here it’s worth having a visiting Supreme Court here,” she said.

Ms Smyth said she was concerned the Gold Coast could become the “lost city” in the eyes of the State Government.

“There is an election looming and North Queensland is the flavour of the month,” she said. “They are getting what they deserve in terms of judicial appointments, why isn’t the Gold Coast?”

In March, the Gold Coast District Law Association and the Gold Coast Bar Association wrote to Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath about the “genuine and pressing need” to accommodate a permanent Supreme Court in the region.

A spokesman for the Attorney-General said there are “no plans to establish a standing Supreme Court on the Gold Coast”.

“Southport is available to host Supreme Court sittings if the Chief Justice deems it necessary and appropriate,” the spokeswoman said.

A spokeswoman for Chief Justice Catherine Holmes said Supreme Court sittings on the Coast were being “contemplated”.