In the past, Aboriginal people have mistrusted the justice system. This mistrust often occurred due to their difficulty in understanding the Australian legal system. In order to improve outcomes for Aboriginal people, Aboriginal groups and criminal justice agencies in South Australia has been modifying existing court processes. One such improvement has been the development of the Aboriginal courts in 1999. The purpose in developing the Aboriginal Court was to provide a more culturally appropriate environment than mainstream courts, thereby tailoring the court processes. In addition to improving the court environment, the Aboriginal courts attempt to reduce the number of Aboriginal deaths in custody, improve court participation rates by Aboriginal people, and break the cycle of Aboriginal offending. Preliminary data obtained from a data collection process conducted by the Courts Improvement Unit indicates that: (1) within a 12-month period (June 2003 to June 2004) the Aboriginal court dealt with 504 cases, (2) the defendant was present in court in almost three-quarters of the 504 cases, and (3) of the 334 penalties imposed over this period the most frequently used penalty was a fine. The development of Aboriginal courts is to provide a more culturally appropriate process for resolving disputes than their mainstream counterparts. Recommendations are presented for improvements to the Aboriginal courts in order to continue its evolution to an independent indigenous judiciary, as well as recommendations in the development of an evaluation to assess the effectiveness of Aboriginal courts.