Caseload, Case Disposal and Waiting Time at Different Court Levels

High Court

CASELOAD AND CASE DISPOSAL OF THE HIGH COURT

		Caseload			Disposal *
		2010	2011	2012	2010	2011	2012
Court of Appeal
Appellate
	Criminal
	Appeals from the Court of First Instance	128	162	162	142	114	185
	Appeals from the District Court	356	383	357	366	345	397
	Sub-total	484	545	519	508	459	582
	Civil
	Appeals from the Court of First Instance	222	230	239	192	166	201
	Appeals from the District Court	28	30	19	35	29	17
	Miscellaneous Appeals	34	31	25	48	25	35
	Sub-total	284	291	283	275	220	253
Review of Sentences
	Criminal
	Reviews from the Court of First Instance	2	2	1	0	3	2
	Reviews from the District Court	11	7	4	7	4	10
	Reviews from the Magistrates' Courts	1	2	2	0	1	2
	Sub-total	14	11	7	7	8	14
	Total	782	847	809	790	687	849

*	Case disposal refers to appeals/reviews which have been allowed, dismissed, withdrawn, discontinued or abandoned with or without court order

		Caseload			Disposal *
		2010	2011	2012	2010	2011	2012
Court of First Instance
Appellate
	Criminal
	Appeals from Magistrates' Courts	980	897	862	994	877	983
	Civil
	Appeals from Labour Tribunal	26	33	29	21	29	24
	Appeals from Small Claims Tribunal	51	38	70	40	37	58
	Appeals from Minor Employment Claims Adjudication Board	17	6	6	14	8	7
	Miscellaneous Appeals	4	2	0	4	5	2
	Sub-total	98	79	105	79	79	91
	Total	1 078	976	967	1 073	956	1 074

First Instance
	Criminal Jurisdiction
	Criminal Cases	444	482	486	419	464	446
	Confidential Miscellaneous Proceedings	96	100	158	96	100	158
	Application for Discharge	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Sub-total	540	582	644	515	564	604
	Civil Jurisdiction
	High Court Actions	1 907	2 237	2 415	1 492	1 475	1 495
	Miscellaneous Proceedings	2 626	2 700	2 905	1 795	1 984	2 140
	Bankruptcy & Companies Winding-up+	10 680	9 464	10 132	11 062	9 421	9 610
	Personal Injuries Actions	706	941	1 006	865	691	770
	Other cases ^#	564	545	649	324	265	282
	Sub-total	16 483	15 887	17 107	15 538	13 836	14 297
	Total	17 023	16 469	17 751	16 053	14 400	14 901

	Masters Chambers
	Interlocutory hearings^**	21 701	20 405	22 137	20 881	18 506	19 706
	Taxation bills	669	678	581	502⁽¹⁾	561⁽¹⁾	462⁽¹⁾
	Probate
	Applications	14 350	16 319	16 308	13 909⁽²⁾	14 525⁽²⁾	16 935⁽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*	Case disposal refers to appeals which have been allowed, dismissed, withdrawn, discontinued or abandoned with or without court order; criminal cases where defendants have been convicted or acquitted; and civil cases where claims have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
+	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

AVERAGE WAITING TIME FOR CASES IN THE HIGH COURT

		Average Waiting Time (days)
		Target	2010	2011	2012
Court of Appeal
-	Criminal - from setting down of a case to hearing	50	50	53	52
	Civil - from application to fix date to hearing	90	89	117	131
Court of First Instance
	Criminal Fixture List - from filing of indictment to hearing	120	166	169	180
	Criminal Running List - from setting down of a case to hearing	90	81	79	72
	Civil Fixture List - from application to fix date to hearing	180	215	231	244
	Civil Running List - from setting down of a case to hearing	90	60	83	50
	Appeals from Magistrates' Courts - from lodging of Notice of Appeal to hearing	90	95	86	92