Hong Kong Judiciary Annual Report 2017

Caseload, Case Disposal and Waiting Time at Different Court Levels

Magistrates' Courts

CASELOAD AND CASE DISPOSAL OF THE MAGISTRATES' COURTS

		Caseload			Disposal *
		2015	2016	2017	2015	2016	2017
-	Charge Cases	33 299	31 440	30 860	32 969	31 554	30 550
-	Hawker Cases	7 710	4 988	1 963	7 712	4 988	1 965
-	Departmental & Private Summonses	179 425	181 670	179 753	178 830	178 042	179 223
-	Driving-Offence Points Summonses	2 086	1 786	2 333	2 020	1 901	2 213
-	Fixed Penalty Summonses (Traffic)	606	611	606	614	611	617
-	Fixed Penalty Summonses (Public Cleanliness and Obstruction)^{^}	115	112	115	126	113	115
-	Fixed Penalty Summonses (Smoking Offences)	15	29	34	19	28	27
-	Fixed Penalty Summonses (Vehicle Idling)	0	0	0	0	0	0
-	Fixed Penalty Summonses (Mandatory Window Inspection)	1	6	8	1	6	5
-	Fixed Penalty Summonses (Plastic Shopping Bag)⁺	0	3	2	0	2	3
-	Miscellaneous Proceedings	11 212	11 213	11 379	11 619	11 378	11 511
-	Departmental Notice	613	810	677	649	755	748
-	Fixed Penalty Notice (Traffic)	78 978	98 383	107 958	76 227	95 398	106 287
-	Fixed Penalty Notice (Public Cleanliness and Obstruction)^{^}	2 169	2 142	2 455	2 128	2 206	2 407
-	Fixed Penalty Notice (Smoking Offences)	775	846	823	792	796	872
-	Fixed Penalty Notice (Vehicle Idling)	0	0	0	0	0	0
-	Fixed Penalty Notice (Mandatory Window Inspection)	1	4	11	0	5	11
-	Fixed Penalty Recovery Order (Plastic Shopping Bag)⁺	1	5	0	1	5	0
	Total	317 006	334 048	338 977	313 707	327 788	336 554

*	Case disposal refers to cases where defendants have been convicted or acquitted after trial or hearing, pre-hearing payments of all penalties and costs, and applications which have been granted, refused, withdrawn or struck out
⁺	New case types pursuant to section 28A of the Product Eco-responsibility Ordinance, Cap. 603 came into effect on 1 April 2015
^{^}	Case types renamed pursuant to the amendment of the title of Cap. 570 from "Fixed Penalty (Public Cleanliness Offences) Ordinance" to "Fixed Penalty (Public Cleanliness and Obstruction) Ordinance" which came into effect on 24 September 2016

AVERAGE WAITING TIME FOR CASES IN THE MAGISTRATES' COURTS

		Average Waiting Time (days)
		Target	2015	2016	2017
Summonses - from plea to date of trial		50	67	67	65
Charge cases except for Juvenile Court - from plea to date of trial
-	For defendants in custody	30-45	39	36	31
-	For defendants on bail	45-60	49	41	40
Charge cases for Juvenile Court - from plea to date of trial
-	For defendants in custody	30-45	72	49	-*
-	For defendants on bail	45-60	60	39	48

*	As there is no charge case for the Juvenile Court where the defendant is remanded in custody, the waiting time is inapplicable