A top judge's call for Queenstown to have its own High Court registry has been dismissed by Minister of Justice Amy Adams.
Ms Adams told the Otago Daily Times the ministry was moving towards greater centralisation of file management services instead of having "lots of little teams around the country''.
Associate Judge Rob Osborne said in a written judgement it was unusual for residents of a district with a significant population to have to travel so far to file proceedings.
In the case, Judge Osborne was asked to determine whether the Dunedin or Invercargill registry was closer to Wanaka. It had highlighted the fact the "inhabitants of towns comprising a significant population ... have to travel so far to the nearest High Court registry''.
"The continued increase in the population in the Queenstown Lakes District Council area may warrant the authorities considering the gazetting of an office of the court at Queenstown.''
But Ms Adams said it was more efficient to have local court staff focus on "face-to-face matters'' while file management services were handled by specialist teams.
One example was the centralisation of granting probate applications in the High Court at Wellington three years ago, which had resulted in a "remarkable'' decrease in processing times.
