Newly appointed chief justice Chris Kourakis joined 891 Breakfast this morning to talk bulging pecs, law and order and growing up in South Australia.

Growing up as part of a migrant family in Port Lincoln, Chief Justice Kourakis said the benefits of living in a country town gave him a solid grounding that provided 'much commonsense and pragmatism'.

Working his way up through the legal system, Chris Kourakis began his career "doing a lot of Legal Aid work and appeared in Magistrate's Courts day in, day out" with hopes of achieving a Magistrate position eventually.

He soon surpassed those dreams with a term as the state SA Solicitor-General for several years before becoming Justice Kourakis on the Supreme Court of South Australia in June of 2012.

"Having become a judge, I think the fact that I spent so much time in the criminal defence bar and for plaintiffs in civil litigation, and then went to the Crown where I were I prosecuted and acted for the government as a defendant to actions has given me a balance which is important," he told 891 Breakfast.

A new Chief, a new message

Chief Minister Kourakis said the message he hope to commence his appointment with was one that there was room for reform in the current South Australian judicial system.

"There needs to be greater emphasis on reform and it is more urgent... it is nothing new."

Mr Kourakis said the bid for reforms were not a swipe at previous office holders, more a greater focus on moves that had been established by his predecessors.

He hoped that during his tenure in the role of Chief Justice he could encourage people to look into other avenues, rather than litigation, to solve civil suits, but for those with no other options, he hoped the actions could be dealt with increased efficiency.

"What we need are lawyers who are trained and continually trained and have the confidence and courage to make the decisions to crunch cases.

"As well as the lawyers having to take on that added responsibility, I recognise that members of the judiciary are going to have to back their judgement on how they run cases."

Chief Justice Kourakis said it had to be realised that giving 'needless indulgence' to appearing parties was adding to backlogs.

"It's a matter of finding the right balance."