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Victoria's justice system continues to adapt its operations in response to the coronavirus pandemic, but lawyers are concerned such a dramatic reduction in the number of cases heard will cause a 'nightmare' backlog. An update released on Monday states the County Court circuit will no longer run in Ballarat and other regional areas due to COVID-19. This will minimise the movement of people between metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victorian locations. The courts are working to use technology to run virtual hearings and enable parties to participate remotely. Jury trials in the County Court have been suspended. The County Court will continue to hear indictable pleas and sentences, sentence appeals from the Magistrates' Court, appropriate pre-trial hearings and the case management of vacated jury trials. The Magistrates' Court remains open in Ballarat and all regional locations across Victoria, but the number of cases heard has been reduced signifciantly to minimise the number of people in court buildings. The Magistrates' Court will continue to hear: remand hearings, applications for bail, committal mentions, pleas for accused in custody, urgent family violence matters, urgent Urgent Personal Safety Intervention Order matters, urgent civil applications, civil hearings using telephone conferencing and urgent Victims of Crime Assistance Tribunal applications. The statement said the courts would continue to closely monitor the situation with a view to re-commencing conventional Supreme and County Court circuit sittings 'as quickly as possible' RELATED COVERAGE: Court changes leads to disruptions Ten Ballarat lawyers have come together to form the Ballarat Lawyers Group in response to the challenges posed by COVID-19. The group is drafting a letter with submissions to the Chief Magistrate to consider ideas to deal with the immediate fall out of hearing custody only matters and the way forward for non-custodial cases. Ballarat Lawyers Group spokesperson and Ballarat defence lawyer Scott Belcher said the health and safety of community was paramount, but it was neccessary to 'think outside the square' to continue hearing cases. Mr Belcher said his ideas included conducting teleconferences for pleas of guilty where a good behaviour bond or fine is expected, meaning the accused would not be required in the court house. He said clients could be situated an appropriate distance from the court house where there was uncertainty as to the sentence, for example jail, a community corrections order or a fine, and the court could then require the accused to enter the court room. "Once travel restrictions are lifted, deploy more magistrates to regional county and coastal Victoria where there is greater capacity to socially isolate accused people to decimate lists," Mr Belcher listed as another idea. "List 10 cases at a time with 10 lawyers on standby to enter the court room one by one, akin to a closed court, to reduce risk of coronavirus, "Then deploy country magistrates to Melbourne to assist their city colleagues to eliminate the back log there." Currently under new practice directions, cases where the accused is not in custody are being adjourned to mid-June. Mr Belcher said this would cause a 'nightmare bottle neck' and 'back log' of cases from July 2020. Have you signed up to The Courier's variety of news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in Ballarat.

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