Hong Kong Judiciary Annual Report 2014

Caseload, Case Disposal and Waiting Time at Different Court Levels

High Court

CASELOAD AND CASE DISPOSAL OF THE HIGH COURT

		Caseload			Disposal *
		2012	2013	2014	2012	2013	2014
Court of Appeal
Appellate
-	Criminal
	Appeals from the Court of First Instance	162	158	185	185	168	185
	Appeals from the District Court	357	291	261	397	365	255
	Sub-total	519	449	446	582	533	440
-	Civil
	Appeals from the Court of First Instance	239	233	219	201	195	220
	Appeals from the District Court	19	21	18	17	29	14
	Miscellaneous Appeals	25	27	25	35	18	27
	Sub-total	283	281	262	253	242	261
Review of Sentences
-	Criminal
	Reviews from the Court of First Instance	1	2	2	2	2	2
	Reviews from the District Court	4	2	4	10	6	6
	Reviews from the Magistrates' Courts	2	0	0	2	2	0
	Sub-total	7	4	6	14	10	8
	Total	809	734	714	849	785	709

*	Case disposal refers to appeals/reviews which have been allowed, dismissed, withdrawn, discontinued or abandoned with or without court order

		Caseload			Disposal *
		2012	2013	2014	2012	2013	2014
Court of First Instance
Appellate
-	Criminal
	Appeals from Magistrates' Courts	862	809	771	983	840	765
-	Civil
	Appeals from Labour Tribunal	29	23	29	24	22	22
	Appeals from Small Claims Tribunal	70	53	66	58	53	66
	Appeals from Minor Employment Claims Adjudication Board	6	2	7	7	3	3
	Miscellaneous Appeals	0	1	0	2	0	0
	Sub-total	105	79	102	91	78	91
	Total	967	888	873	1 074	918	856

First Instance
-	Criminal Jurisdiction
	Criminal Cases	486	571	545	446	503	503
	Confidential Miscellaneous Proceedings	158	326	346	158	326	346
	Application for Discharge	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Sub-total	644	897	891	604	829	849
-	Civil Jurisdiction
	High Court Actions	2 415	2 602	2 641	1 495	1 595	1 658
	Miscellaneous Proceedings	2 905	3 479	3 362	2 140	2 495	2 424
	Bankruptcy & Companies Winding-up+	10 132	10 712	11 267	9 610	10 761	11 058
	Personal Injuries Actions	1 006	1 108	1 405	770	911	1 037
	Other cases ^#	649	593	590	282	226	288
	Sub-total	17 107	18 494	19 265	14 297	15 988	16 465
	Total	17 751	19 391	20 156	14 901	16 817	17 314

-	Masters Chambers
	Interlocutory hearings^**	22 137	23 194	25 591	19 706	21 556	22 880
	Taxation bills	581	603	697	462⁽¹⁾	444⁽¹⁾	544⁽¹⁾
-	Probate
	Applications	16 308	16 967	17 931	16 935⁽²⁾	16 664⁽²⁾	17 498⁽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*	Case disposal refers to appeals which have been allowed, dismissed, withdrawn, discontinued or abandoned with or without court order; criminal cases where defendants have been convicted or acquitted; and civil cases where claims have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)
		2014 Target	2012 (Actual)	2013 (Actual)	2014 (Actual)
Court of Appeal
-	Criminal - from setting down of a case to hearing	50	52	50	51
-	Civil - from application to fix date to hearing	90	131	138	117
Court of First Instance
-	Criminal Fixture List - from filing of indictment to hearing	120	180	211	227
-	Criminal Running List - from setting down of a case to hearing	90	72	83	86
-	Civil Fixture List - from application to fix date to hearing	180	244	261	193
-	Civil Running List - from setting down of a case to hearing ^△	-	50	85	-
-	Civil Running List - from not-to-be-warned date to hearing ^△	30	-	-	19
-	Appeals from Magistrates' Courts - from lodging of Notice of Appeal to hearing	90	92	105	104

^△

Upon endorsement by the Court Users’ Committees, the target for Civil Running List of the Court of First Instance of the High Court is revised from the previous description, i.e. “from setting down of a case to hearing” to that of “from not-to-be-warned date to hearing”, which is considered as a more appropriate way in measuring the waiting time for Civil Running List. The target is set at 30 days effective from 1 January 2014.