Caseload, Case Disposal and Waiting Time at Different Court Levels

High Court

CASELOAD AND CASE DISPOSAL OF THE HIGH COURT

		Caseload			Disposal *
		2011	2012	2013	2011	2012	2013
Court of Appeal
Appellate
	Criminal
	Appeals from the Court of First Instance	162	162	158	114	185	168
	Appeals from the District Court	383	357	291	345	397	365
	Sub-total	545	519	449	459	582	533
	Civil
	Appeals from the Court of First Instance	230	239	233	166	201	195
	Appeals from the District Court	30	19	21	29	17	29
	Miscellaneous Appeals	31	25	27	25	35	18
	Sub-total	291	283	281	220	253	242
Review of Sentences
	Criminal
	Reviews from the Court of First Instance	2	1	2	3	2	2
	Reviews from the District Court	7	4	2	4	10	6
	Reviews from the Magistrates' Courts	2	2	0	1	2	2
	Sub-total	11	7	4	8	14	10
	Total	847	809	734	687	849	785

*	Case disposal refers to appeals/reviews which have been allowed, dismissed, withdrawn, discontinued or abandoned with or without court order

		Caseload			Disposal *
		2011	2012	2013	2011	2012	2013
Court of First Instance
Appellate
	Criminal
	Appeals from Magistrates' Courts	897	862	809	877	983	840
	Civil
	Appeals from Labour Tribunal	33	29	23	29	24	22
	Appeals from Small Claims Tribunal	38	70	53	37	58	53
	Appeals from Minor Employment Claims Adjudication Board	6	6	2	8	7	3
	Miscellaneous Appeals	2	0	1	5	2	0
	Sub-total	79	105	79	79	91	78
	Total	976	967	888	956	1 074	918

First Instance
	Criminal Jurisdiction
	Criminal Cases	482	486	571	464	446	503
	Confidential Miscellaneous Proceedings	100	158	326	100	158	326
	Application for Discharge	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Sub-total	582	644	897	564	604	829
	Civil Jurisdiction
	High Court Actions	2 237	2 415	2 602	1 475	1 495	1 595
	Miscellaneous Proceedings	2 700	2 905	3 479	1 984	2 140	2 495
	Bankruptcy & Companies Winding-up+	9 464	10 132	10 712	9 421	9 610	10 761
	Personal Injuries Actions	941	1 006	1 108	691	770	911
	Other cases ^#	545	649	593	265	282	226
	Sub-total	15 887	17 107	18 494	13 836	14 297	15 988
	Total	16 469	17 751	19 391	14 400	14 901	16 817

	Masters Chambers
	Interlocutory hearings^**	20 405	22 137	23 194	18 506	19 706	21 556
	Taxation bills	678	581	603	561⁽¹⁾	462⁽¹⁾	444⁽¹⁾
	Probate
	Applications	16 319	16 308	16 967	14 525⁽²⁾	16 935⁽²⁾	16 664⁽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*	Case disposal refers to appeals which have been allowed, dismissed, withdrawn, discontinued or abandoned with or without court order; criminal cases where defendants have been convicted or acquitted; and civil cases where claims have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	2011	2012	2013
Court of Appeal
-	Criminal - from setting down of a case to hearing	50	53	52	50
	Civil - from application to fix date to hearing	90	117	131	138
Court of First Instance
	Criminal Fixture List - from filing of indictment to hearing	120	169	180	211
	Criminal Running List - from setting down of a case to hearing	90	79	72	83
	Civil Fixture List - from application to fix date to hearing	180	231	244	261
	Civil Running List - from setting down of a case to hearing	90	83	50	85
	Appeals from Magistrates' Courts - from lodging of Notice of Appeal to hearing	90	86	92	105