Caseload, Case Disposal and Waiting Time at Different Court Levels

High Court

CASELOAD AND CASE DISPOSAL OF THE HIGH COURT

		Caseload			Disposal *
		2014	2015	2016	2014	2015	2016
Court of Appeal
Appellate
	Criminal
	Appeals from the Court of First Instance	185	190	172	185	170	151
	Appeals from the District Court	261	251	222	255	261	229
	Sub-total	446	441	394	440	431	380
	Civil
	Appeals from the Court of First Instance	219	225	214	220	219	226
	Appeals from the District Court	18	19	12	14	29	16
	Miscellaneous Appeals	25	35	20	27	29	31
	Sub-total	262	279	246	261	277	273
Review of Sentences
	Criminal
	Reviews from the Court of First Instance	2	0	2	2	1	0
	Reviews from the District Court	4	1	2	6	0	1
	Reviews from the Magistrates' Courts	0	0	2	0	0	0
	Sub-total	6	1	6	8	1	1
	Total	714	721	646	709	709	654

*	Case disposal refers to appeals/reviews which have been allowed, dismissed, withdrawn, discontinued or abandoned with or without court order

		Caseload			Disposal *
		2014	2015	2016	2014	2015	2016
Court of First Instance
Appellate
	Criminal
	Appeals from Magistrates' Courts	771	777	702	765	756	713
	Civil
	Appeals from Labour Tribunal	29	47	27	22	31	30
	Appeals from Small Claims Tribunal	66	76	44	66	67	49
	Appeals from Minor Employment Claims Adjudication Board	7	3	2	3	5	3
	Miscellaneous Appeals	0	2	5	0	2	2
	Sub-total	102	128	78	91	105	84
	Total	873	905	780	856	861	797

First Instance
	Criminal Jurisdiction
	Criminal Cases	545	503	497	503	493	506
	Confidential Miscellaneous Proceedings	346	402	405	346	402	405
	Application for Discharge	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Sub-total	891	905	902	849	895	911
	Civil Jurisdiction
	High Court Actions	2 641	3 125	3 448	1 658	1 955	2 093
	Miscellaneous Proceedings	3 362	3 471	3 617	2 424	2 478	2 577
	Bankruptcy & Companies Winding-up+	11 267	11 087	10 298	11 058	11 008	10 107
	Personal Injuries Actions	1 405	1 418	1 447	1 037	1 173	1 255
	Other cases ^#	590	656	579	288	256	381
	Sub-total	19 265	19 757	19 389	16 465	16 870	16 413
	Total	20 156	20 662	20 291	17 314	17 765	17 324

	Masters Chambers
	Interlocutory hearings^**	25 591	27 250	27 684	22 880	24 407	24 798
	Taxation bills	697	643	654	544⁽¹⁾	448⁽¹⁾	426⁽¹⁾
	Probate
	Applications	17 931	19 127	18 368	17 498⁽²⁾	18 583⁽²⁾	18 189⁽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*	Case disposal refers to appeals which have been allowed, dismissed, withdrawn, discontinued or abandoned with or without court order; criminal cases where defendants have been convicted or acquitted; and civil cases where claims have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	2014	2015	2016
Court of Appeal
-	Criminal - from setting down of a case to hearing	50	51	53	46
	Civil - from application to fix date to hearing	90	117	112	86
Court of First Instance
	Criminal Fixture List - from filing of indictment to hearing	120	227	272	291
	Criminal Running List - from setting down of a case to hearing	90	86	81	96
	Civil Fixture List - from application to fix date to hearing	180	193	140	155
	Civil Running List - from not-to-be-warned date to hearing	30	19	7	13
	Appeals from Magistrates' Courts - from lodging of Notice of Appeal to hearing	90	104	100	105