Overall picture on caseload and disposal at all Court levels

High Court

CASELOAD AND CASE DISPOSAL OF THE HIGH COURT

		Caseload			Disposal *
		2008	2009	2010	2008	2009	2010
Court of Appeal
Appellate
	Criminal
	Appeals from the Court of First Instance	126	131	128	129	111	142
	Appeals from the District Court	304	346	356	357	314	366
	Sub-total	430	477	484	486	425	508
	Civil
	Appeals from the Court of First Instance	313	213	222	295	219	192
	Appeals from the District Court	29	37	28	37	26	35
	Miscellaneous Appeals	43	35	34	39	36	48
	Sub-total	385	285	284	371	281	275
Review of Sentences
	Criminal
	Reviews from the Court of First Instance	2	1	2	2	2	0
	Reviews from the District Court	5	7	11	6	7	7
	Reviews from the Magistrates' Courts	2	1	1	7	1	0
	Sub-total	9	9	14	15	10	7
	Total	824	771	782	872	716	790

*	Case disposal refers to appeals/reviews which have been allowed, dismissed, withdrawn, discontinued or abandoned with or without court order

		Caseload			Disposal *
		2008	2009	2010	2008	2009	2010
Court of First Instance
Appellate
	Criminal
	Appeals from Magistrates' Courts	1 125	1 043	980	1 156	996	994
	Civil
	Appeals from Labour Tribunal	47	42	26	50	41	21
	Appeals from Small Claims Tribunal	50	53	51	59	50	40
	Appeals from Minor Employment Claims Adjudication Board	10	8	17	13	5	14
	Miscellaneous Appeals	4	10	4	7	6	4
	Sub-total	111	113	98	129	102	79
	Total	1 236	1 156	1 078	1 285	1 098	1 073

First Instance
	Criminal Jurisdiction
	Criminal Cases	311	425	444	301	367	419
	Confidential Miscellaneous Proceedings	64	64	96	64	64	96
	Application for Discharge	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Sub-total	375	489	540	365	431	515
	Civil Jurisdiction^{^}
	High Court Actions	2 784	2 574	1 907	1 741	1 891	1 492
	Miscellaneous Proceedings	2 631	2 701	2 626	1 679	1 761	1 795
	Bankruptcy & Companies Winding-up+	14 500	19 693	10 680	11 629	17 105	11 062
	Personal Injuries Actions	951	872	706	927	677	865
	Other cases ^#	537	611	564	253	330	324
	Sub-total	21 403	26 451	16 483	16 229	21 764	15 538
	Total	21 778	26 940	17 023	16 594	22 195	16 053

	Masters Chambers
	Interlocutory hearings^**	29 287	35 574	21 701	26 660	34 176	20 881
	Taxation bills	1 043	1 032	669	970⁽¹⁾	958⁽¹⁾	502⁽¹⁾
	Probate
	Applications	13 339	14 676	14 350	12 958⁽²⁾	14 466⁽²⁾	13 909⁽²⁾

*	Case disposal refers to appeals which have been allowed, dismissed, withdrawn, discontinued or abandoned with or without court order; criminal cases where defendants have been convicted or acquitted; and civil cases where claims have been successfully made or dismissed
^	On or before 2009, the definition under civil jurisdiction was based on party disposal, i.e. a case was treated as disposed of once one party in a case had been disposed of. Since 2010, the definition has been refined to the effect that a case is considered as disposed of only when all the parties involved have been disposed of
+	Cases include bankruptcy proceedings, companies winding-up proceedings, applications for Interim Order (Bankruptcy) and applications to set aside Statutory Demands
#	Other cases include constitutional and administrative law proceedings, admiralty actions, adoptions, bill of sale registrations, book debt registrations, commercial actions, construction and arbitration cases, matrimonial causes, applications under the Mental Health Ordinance, probate actions and stop notices
**	The caseload figure represents the number of interlocutory applications listed with hearings, and the disposal figure represents the number of the interlocutory applications heard in the reporting period
	Note (1) : Case disposal refers to taxation bills processed
	Note (2) : Case disposal refers to grants issued/grants resealed/estates administration completed by the Official Administrator in summary manner

WAITING TIME FOR CASES IN THE HIGH COURT

		Waiting Time (days)
		Target	2008	2009	2010
Court of Appeal
-	Criminal cases - from setting down of a case to hearing	50	42	50	50
	Civil cases - from application to fix date to hearing	90	85	94	89
Court of First Instance
	Criminal Fixture - from filing of indictment to hearing	120	112	137	166
	Criminal Running List - from setting down to hearing	90	63	85	81
	Civil Fixture - from application to fix date to hearing	180	145	179	215
	Civil Running List - from setting down to hearing	90	59	55	60
	Appeals from Magistrates' Courts - from lodging of Notice of Appeal to hearing	90	90	95	95