Court hearings to decide whether someone should stand trial are on the way out and the move to streamline the court process will mean victims won't have to testify so often.
An agreement between Labour and National will bring relief for judges overwhelmed with cases linked to the drug P at a time when the country's chief high court judge says the courts are swamped with methamphetamine cases.
Justice Tony Randerson has appealed to parliament to ease the pressure on the High Court and he wants the Criminal Procedure Bill passed so that P cases can be dealt with in the District Court.
The compromise between the two major parties will effectively see an end to depositions - the hearing that is held to determine if there is a case to answer.
National's justice spokesman Simon Power says the compromise includes a deal where oral submissions can be retained if an oral evidence order is sought. And he says a full review will be carried out by the Solicitor General after two years to see how the system is working.
"I hope that what the bill will do is speed up the process...in particular the backlog of methamphetamine trials," says Power.
The Criminal Procedures Bill has been in the pipeline for over four years and will enable deposition evidence to be submitted to judges, doing away with court-room hearings.
The bill stalled last year because National disagreed with doing away with the pre-trial hearings but it regained the spotlight last month during the Sophie Elliott depositions hearing.
The hearing for Clayton Weatherston, who stands accused of Elliott's murder, ran for four days in Dunedin and the pain for victims was easy to see when Sophie's mother Lesley Elliott had to recall seeing her daughter being stabbed to death and was questioned for four hours.
She told Close Up she couldn't imagine taking the stand again.
"When I finished my legs were like jelly and I fell apart... but I think that it was the realisation that I was going to have to do it again," Elliott said.
"I think that was the really hard bit...once I can cope with but going through the whole thing again just seems awful."
The family will be back in court next month for a pre-trial hearing and the trial itself is likely to be some time in 2009.
The compromise with National will also see judges given the power to call a hearing if they see fit.
The government has welcomed National's decision and says it will try to push the legislation through as quickly as possible.
"The Criminal Procedure Bill now has the numbers to progress and this is great news for the victims of crime, police, expert witnesses and all court users and staff," Courts Minister Rick Barker says.
He says the government was committed to passing the bill in its entirety as the provisions are part of a package aiming to improve aspects of the justice system.
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