Victoria's first judge-only criminal trial is to start on Monday, when a man and woman on drugs charges will have their cases decided by County Court judge Liz Gaynor.
The suspension of jury trials since March has meant hundreds of accused people have had their cases delayed – many will not be heard until 2021 at the earliest – but Monday's is the only judge-alone trial before the Supreme and County courts.
"It is an illuminating statement that accused persons are not opting for judge-alone trials, especially where delay in reaching a trial date is inevitable given the pandemic," Ms Coombes said. "It is harder for the prosecution to convince 12 people of guilt than one," he said. "While not infallible, a jury trial is considered superior and of less risk to an accused for that very reason alone."
"I would have thought given the perfect storm of bail reform and delay there could be people who might have a triable case who think they might take a chance with a judge alone," he said. Victoria's legislation for judge-only trials has a sunset clause of October but for now brings it into line with the other mainland states.
Criminal Bar Association of Victoria chair Daniel Gurvich says judge-only trial applications may increase if jury trials do not resume soon."Those people will generally want to have their cases heard and a delay of two or three years is unacceptable to them."
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