Caseload, Case Disposal and Waiting Time at Different Court Levels

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	Court of Final Appeal		High Court
	Competition Tribunal		District Court
	Lands Tribunal		Magistrates' Courts
	Labour Tribunal		Small Claims Tribunal
	Obscene Articles Tribunal		Coroner's Court

High Court

CASELOAD AND CASE DISPOSAL OF THE HIGH COURT

		Caseload			Disposal *
		2015	2016	2017	2015	2016	2017
Court of Appeal
Appellate
	Criminal
	Appeals from the Court of First Instance	190	172	179	170	151	160
	Appeals from the District Court	251	222	237	261	229	206
	Sub-total	441	394	416	431	380	366
	Civil
	Appeals from the Court of First Instance	225	214	264	219	226	193
	Appeals from the District Court	19	12	16	29	16	11
	Miscellaneous Appeals	35	20	18	29	31	20
	Sub-total	279	246	298	277	273	224
Review of Sentences
	Criminal
	Reviews from the Court of First Instance	0	2	0	1	0	2
	Reviews from the District Court	1	2	2	0	1	4
	Reviews from the Magistrates' Courts	0	2	2	0	0	3
	Sub-total	1	6	4	1	1	9
	Total	721	646	718	709	654	599
Miscellaneous Proceedings⁺		-	-	83	-	-	39

*	Case disposal refers to appeals/reviews which have been allowed, dismissed, withdrawn, discontinued or abandoned with or without court order
⁺	A new case type created to capture criminal and civil miscellaneous matters before the Court of Appeal with effect from 1 July 2017. Its caseload was formerly subsumed under High Court Miscellaneous Proceedings and categorized under civil jurisdiction of the Court of First Instance

		Caseload			Disposal *
		2015	2016	2017	2015	2016	2017
Court of First Instance
Appellate
	Criminal
	Appeals from Magistrates' Courts	777	702	659	756	713	719
	Civil
	Appeals from Labour Tribunal	47	27	45	31	30	30
	Appeals from Small Claims Tribunal	76	44	66	67	49	43
	Appeals from Minor Employment Claims Adjudication Board	3	2	5	5	3	5
	Miscellaneous Appeals	2	5	3	2	2	5
	Sub-total	128	78	119	105	84	83
	Total	905	780	778	861	797	802

First Instance
	Criminal Jurisdiction
	Criminal Cases	503	497	449	493	506	519
	Confidential Miscellaneous Proceedings	402	405	382	402	405	382
	Application for Discharge	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Miscellaneous Proceedings (Criminal)^{^}	-	-	374	-	-	295
	Sub-total	905	902	1 205	895	911	1 196
	Civil Jurisdiction
	High Court Actions	3 125	3 448	3 041	1 955	2 093	1 971
	Miscellaneous Proceedings^@	3 471	3 617	2 778	2 478	2 577	2 205
	Bankruptcy & Companies Winding-up⁺	11 087	10 298	8 880	11 008	10 107	8 838
	Personal Injuries Actions	1 418	1 447	1 394	1 173	1 255	1 301
	Other cases^#	656	579	1 507	256	381	517
	Sub-total	19 757	19 389	17 600	16 870	16 413	14 832
	Total	20 662	20 291	18 805	17 765	17 324	16 028

	Masters Chambers
	Interlocutory hearings^**	27 250	27 684	24 882	24 407	24 798	22 549
	Taxation bills	643	654	681	448⁽¹⁾	426⁽¹⁾	527⁽¹⁾
	Probate
	Applications	19 127	18 368	20 477	18 583⁽²⁾	18 189⁽²⁾	19 537⁽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
^{^}	A new case type created to capture criminal miscellaneous matters before the Court of First Instance with effect from 1 July 2017. Its caseload was formerly subsumed under High Court Miscellaneous Proceedings and categorized under civil jurisdiction of First Instance
^@	An existing case type revised to exclude miscellaneous matters before the Court of Appeal and criminal miscellaneous matters before the Court of First Instance with effect from 1 July 2017
⁺	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, stop notices and confidential miscellaneous proceedings (civil) (an existing case type revised to include confidential matters in civil nature before the Court of First Instance which came to the effect on 26 June 2017)
**	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	2015	2016	2017
Court of Appeal
-	Criminal - from setting down of a case to hearing	50	53	46	47
	Civil - from application to fix date to hearing	90	112	86	89
Court of First Instance
	Criminal Fixture List - from filing of indictment to hearing*	120	272	291	164
	Criminal Running List - from setting down of a case to hearing*	90	81	96	111
	Civil Fixture List - from application to fix date to hearing	180	140	155	163
	Civil Running List - from not-to-be-warned date to hearing	30	7	13	16
	Appeals from Magistrates' Courts - from lodging of Notice of Appeal to hearing	90	100	105	91

Upon the new Practice Direction 9.3 on Criminal Proceedings in the Court of First Instance takes effect on 12 June 2017, 'Criminal Expedited List' has replaced the 'Criminal Running List'. Target waiting times of 'Criminal Fixture List' and 'Criminal Expedited List' will be reviewed and determined in mid-2018

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