Hong Kong Judiciary Annual Report 2016

Caseload, Case Disposal and Waiting Time at Different Court Levels

Magistrates' Courts

CASELOAD AND CASE DISPOSAL OF THE MAGISTRATES' COURTS

		Caseload			Disposal *
		2014	2015	2016	2014	2015	2016
-	Charge Cases	34 419	33 299	31 440	34 278	32 969	31 554
-	Hawker Cases	7 988	7 710	4 988	8 002	7 712	4 988
-	Departmental & Private Summonses	190 671	179 425	181 670	188 164	178 830	178 042
-	Driving-Offence Points Summonses	2 359	2 086	1 786	2 343	2 020	1 901
-	Fixed Penalty Summonses (Traffic)	757	606	611	762	614	611
-	Fixed Penalty Summonses (Public Cleanliness and Obstruction)^{^}	139	115	112	145	126	113
-	Fixed Penalty Summonses (Smoking Offences)	38	15	29	37	19	28
-	Fixed Penalty Summonses (Vehicle Idling)	0	0	0	0	0	0
-	Fixed Penalty Summonses (Mandatory Window Inspection)	0	1	6	0	1	6
-	Fixed Penalty Summonses (Plastic Shopping Bag)⁺	-	0	3	-	0	2
-	Miscellaneous Proceedings	11 266	11 212	11 213	11 338	11 619	11 378
-	Departmental Notice	706	613	810	691	649	755
-	Fixed Penalty Notice (Traffic)	71 733	78 978	98 383	72 569	76 227	95 398
-	Fixed Penalty Notice (Public Cleanliness and Obstruction)^{^}	1 990	2 169	2 142	2 037	2 128	2 206
-	Fixed Penalty Notice (Smoking Offences)	898	775	846	903	792	796
-	Fixed Penalty Notice (Vehicle Idling)	0	0	0	0	0	0
-	Fixed Penalty Notice (Mandatory Window Inspection)	0	1	4	0	0	5
-	Fixed Penalty Recovery Order (Plastic Shopping Bag)⁺	-	1	5	-	1	5
	Total	322 964	317 006	334 048	321 269	313 707	327 788

*	Case disposal refers to cases where defendants have been convicted or acquitted after trial or hearing, pre-hearing payments of all penalties and costs, and applications which have been granted, refused, withdrawn or struck out
⁺	New case types pursuant to section 28A of the Product Eco-responsibility Ordinance, Cap. 603 came into effect on 1 April 2015
^{^}	Case types renamed pursuant to the amendment of the title of Cap. 570 from "Fixed Penalty (Public Cleanliness Offences) Ordinance" to "Fixed Penalty (Public Cleanliness and Obstruction) Ordinance" which came into effect on 24 September 2016

AVERAGE WAITING TIME FOR CASES IN THE MAGISTRATES' COURTS

		Average Waiting Time (days)
		Target	2014	2015	2016
Summonses - from plea to date of trial		50	67	67	67
Charge cases except for Juvenile Court - from plea to date of trial
-	For defendants in custody	30-45	36	39	36
-	For defendants on bail	45-60	44	49	41
Charge cases for Juvenile Court - from plea to date of trial
-	For defendants in custody	30-45	45	72	49
-	For defendants on bail	45-60	45	60	39