Four new magistrates will bring 80 years of legal experience to the Local Court of NSW.
Attorney General Mark Speakman welcomed the expertise of the new appointees, Michael Ong, Kasey Pearce, Gareth Christofi and Rebecca Hosking.
“The Local Court Court is the engine room of the NSW justice system, dealing with 96 per cent of all criminal prosecutions and more than 90 per cent of civil cases,” Mr Speakman said.
“Our new magistrates have an impressive breadth of experience across the legal system and will be a tremendous asset to the Local Court.
“In addition, the new appointments will bring the local court nearer to gender parity than ever before, with 49.6 per cent of magistrates being women. It is encouraging to see this figure edge closer in a profession that has traditionally been male-dominated.”
Following the swearing in of the new magistrates, there will be 70 female and 71 male magistrates in the Local Court.
The new magistrates will undergo training and spend at least a year in the Sydney metropolitan region sitting in the Local Court, Children’s Court and Coroner’s Court before commencing country service.
Mr Ong and Ms Pearce will be sworn in on 24 May and Mr Christofi and Ms Hosking on 15 June.
They will replace Magistrates who have retired from the court.
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