Safeguarding public trust in the courts demands active leadership from the judiciary, chief justices and legal leaders have stressed.
In a speech delivered at the commencement of the 2025 Australian Legal Convention, the High Court’s Chief Justice Stephen Gageler said that trust in Australia’s legal systems may be stronger than its overseas counterpart, but it is far from immune to erosion.
In the face of these global forces, the way new technologies have rapidly changed communication, and with truth decay, Chief Justice Gageler said how confidence and respect of the Australian public is to continue to be earned “demands active consideration”.
“How the Australian judicature presents itself to the Australian people and how it properly conducts itself in its necessary interactions with the elected representatives of the Australian people must be cognisant of and sensitive to them,” the Chief Justice added.
Dr Ruth Higgins SC echoed this message in a plenary address, telling an audience of 270 leading legal practitioners – and many more on the live stream – that the way leaders conduct themselves can either bolster or destroy trust in the decisions of complex institutions.
Focusing on the justice systems, Higgins said that while many individuals and social groups will encounter different levels of the court hierarchy, it is inevitable that all will “ultimately encounter other individuals”. Higgins said this is why leaders matter.
“Their public persona, the way in which they carry their authority, the extent with which they defend and extend institutional values, and the sentiments they foster in the profession and public collectively set the institutional tone,” Higgins said.
Following the plenary was a session of declining trust in the courts, featuring NSW Supreme Court’s Chief Justice Andrew Bell, Higgins, Justice James Stellios of the Federal Court of Australia, and New Zealand’s Chief Justice Helen Winkelmann GNZM.
Chief Justice Bell said judicial leaders have a role to play in advocating for more judges and better facilities, “because erosion of trust in the legal system begins for most people in a lower court or tribunal, where facilities are often not fit for purpose, too old, too small, and there are not enough judicial resources to give people”.
Chief Justice Winkelmann agreed the role of the judicial leader was an “incredibly important one”, particularly at a time when there has been so much debate about the way legal institutions make decisions.
From the audience of that session, the Supreme Court of Western Australia’s Justice Peter Quinlan said the tenure for judges has given them a “particular advantage” over other arms of government.
With this unique position, Chief Justice Quinlan said they “can afford to be candid about what we can do and what we can’t do, and what the purpose of our institutions are and what their limitations are”.
“We can afford to be sensitive to and address the community’s expectations and their disappointments from time to time, and I think we should do it more often,” Chief Justice Quinlan said.
“We have a good story to tell, but as part of telling that story, we can also afford to be more candid about its limitations, its natural human limitations, and I think that is part of the process of building trust.”
Speaking to Lawyers Weekly after the session, Chief Justice Bell said judges must be involved in educating the broader public, and particularly the non-legal members of the public, “about what it is that judges do and why they do it and what their goal is”.
“[It is about] understanding the process, the structures that judges have these public responsibilities and heavy responsibilities, and must bring their technical skills to bear in a bona fide way and, in my view, in an expeditious way,” Chief Justice Bell said.
Touching on some of the methods in which this has been done, Chief Justice Bell said there has been a “greater consciousness” of the need to communicate reasons in judgments so they are “directly understood and they’re not couched in legalese”.
“Where there are judgments, and there’s a high level of public interest in them, they’re likely to attract attention and discussion and may be contentious. In my own practice, I tend to spell out early on precisely what is happening in the judgment and what’s going to happen.
“There’s more training on judgment-writing amongst the national judiciary and more emphasis on techniques of making things user-friendly. I’ve always used a lot of sign posts in my writing … to take the reader along with where we’re going now, what part of this analysis is important,” Chief Justice Bell said.
By doing so, the Chief Justice said the parties will understand the decision made, but so too will the public.
More from the 2025 Australian Legal Convention:
Naomi Neilson is a senior journalist with a focus on court reporting for Lawyers Weekly.
You can email Naomi at:
