Once the old courthouse's remediation work is finished, a project led by the Waitaki District Council, the Ministry of Justice will consider installing AVL and upgrading the court's information technology infrastructure so it can supply services like Wi-Fi, both firsts for the building.
AVL allows courts to connect directly to prison booths and to other buildings if a case calls for it.
The council took possession of the 1883 courthouse in July last year after it was closed in December 2011 because it did not meet earthquake standards.
In March, when Justice Minister Amy Adams announced ownership of the courthouse would be transferred to the council and the ministry would lease it from the council for court services, Waitaki District Mayor Gary Kircher hoped the strengthening work required for court services to return to the building could be completed within a year, but that deadline will not be met.
Council property manager Renee Julius said the council was waiting for an engineer's report to determine the seismic strengthening needed.
Once the report was received the work could begin.
No timeframe for the arrival of the engineer's report was given.
Oamaru's court services are being run out of a prefabricated building in Humber St in the meantime.
A ministry spokeswoman said the ministry acknowledged working out of a temporary space was different to a permanent building, but the ``port-a-court'' contained all the equipment and infrastructure staff required to do their jobs.
A ministry spokesman said the Oamaru court was one of the smallest in terms of case volume, and was a hearings-only venue.
``This means it is not open full-time, has no sitting judge and only hears judge-alone cases that run for no longer than a day. All other cases are subsequently transferred to either Timaru or Dunedin courthouses.''
He said the use of AVL was increasing among courthouses and holding cases via AVL reduced court costs and risk.
