It comes as the state's chief magistrate indicated that local courts may be forced to take drastic actions in relation to magistrates being overworked and starved of resources.

In his foreword in the 2018 review of NSW Local Court, published in August this year, Judge Graeme Henson said "a burgeoning caseload, long sitting hours, a shortage of resources and no likely relief on the horizon" continue to confront the Local Court.

"As a consequence, the local court continues to struggle with resulting impacts on and threats to the health and well-being of its magistrates, as well as court staff and other stakeholders," Judge Henson said.

The judge warned the state government that if it remains "insufficiently concerned" about the capacity and health of the local court, then the court itself may have to change its practices, including reduced sitting hours, to meet the challenges.

He said the obvious consequences of such actions would mean delays in dealing with cases.

"There is a limit to what may reasonably be expected of the local court. In my view that limit has been reached," Judge Henson said.

In the Riverina, Wagga remains the busiest court. It recorded 4506 new criminal matters in 2018, nearly twice compared with Griffith, the second busiest.

In 2012 and 2015, Wagga recorded only 3270 and 4268 new cases while Griffith recorded 1881 and 2651 for the same years.

New cases for Tumut, Narrandera and Cootamundra courts remain between 400-700 in the past six years.

Despite Wagga recording a drop in new cases by 430 in 2016-18, Riverina defence lawyer David Barron said it has resulted in little relief.

"These figures do not identify the time each case requires," he said.

Mr Barron, who has been in criminal law for more than 25 years, including 15 as a prosecutor, said both the local and district courts seem to be sitting longer hours.

"The real need is for a second full-time magistrate in Wagga and perhaps a second district court judge on an occasional basis to deal with lengthy 'special fixture' trials," he said.

"Magistrates and judges are people who should be entitled to have a safe and healthy workplace.

"Stress from overwork must be a considerable risk for judicial officers."

While NSW has the largest number of judicial officers in a summary jurisdiction in Australia, the number of magistrates rose from 133 to only 137 in 2012-18.

Across the state in 2017-18, the criminal caseload of the court rose from 330,755 to 339,219 with 99.88 per cent of last year's cases finalised.

In the past six years, there was an additional 70,000 increase in cases across NSW.

A number of legislative reforms have also impacted the local court. For example, the Early Appropriate Guilty Plea reforms, aimed at reducing the backlogs of trials and delays in the district court, started in April last year.

Riverina defence lawyer Zac Tankard said that while major reforms such as the EAGP reduce the overall time of a matter because it encourages early pleas, it has increased the amount of matters in the local court.

"The only real way is more people sharing the load - more magistrates, more prosecutors, more defence lawyers," he said.

Mr Tankard, who has practised criminal law in the region since 1998, said another potential solution is to have minor amendments to the registrar's powers to allow them to conduct some tasks performed by magistrates.

"There is a sense of increased workload to the point of exhaustion in conducting work in the local courts," he said.

"There are more matters in court on any given list or hearing day. Just turn up on any given Wagga Wagga Wednesday and there will be 100-odd matters.

"When you stop to think about it, there must be something fundamentally wrong with the system if the chief judicial officer in the local courts is calling for magistrates to work fewer hours - and potentially not finish the work - so [court] lists will blow out and there to be complaints for the government to take notice to then fix the broken system.

He said if sitting hours are reduced, the more serious matters being dealt with in the local court are going to take longer to finalise.

"There would be a substantial backlash from matters being constantly being not reached and adjourned," Mr Tankard said.

Julianne Carroll, President of the South West Slopes branch of the NSW Law Society, said they have been advocating for more funding to boost resources across the state, particularly those in regional areas.

"Access to justice and the provision of legal services is integral to the sustainability of regional communities," Ms Carroll said.

"The Law Society supports the call for more judicial officers and resourcing to reduce backlogs and delays in both local and district courts ... 96 per cent of all criminal prosecutions in NSW are finalised in the local court."

Asked about what she would like to see improved in addition to the legislative and infrastructure initiatives already in place to ease workloads, Ms Carroll said continual access to resources is a must.

"For our smaller regional courts ... the continued provision of services and resources to these local centres is essential to the ongoing ability for access to justice for all," she said.

State Attorney General Mark Speakman said the government is "committed to resourcing the local court and working with the chief magistrate to maintain the high standards".

Mr Speakman cited the government's investment of more than $200 million in upgrading courthouses, including the $17 million renovations of Wagga Courthouse completed in 2016.

"The government recognises magistrates have a demanding, difficult and often thankless job, dealing with some of the worst examples of human behaviour on a daily basis," Mr Speakman said.

"We are grateful for their professionalism and dedicated service to our justice system."

Shadow Attorney General Paul Lynch said the chief magistrate's language reflects "his absolute frustration at the comprehensive disinterest of the government in properly resourcing the local court".

Media for NSW Police Prosecutions declined to comment.