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 *
		2016	2017	2018	2016	2017	2018
Court of Appeal
Appellate
	Criminal
	Appeals from the Court of First Instance	172	179	177	151	160	169
	Appeals from the District Court	222	237	205	229	206	211
	Sub-total	394	416	382	380	366	380
	Civil
	Appeals from the Court of First Instance	214	264	580	226	193	478
	Appeals from the District Court	12	16	14	16	11	17
	Miscellaneous Appeals	20	18	17	31	20	12
	Sub-total	246	298	611	273	224	507
Review of Sentences
	Criminal
	Reviews from the Court of First Instance	2	0	0	0	2	0
	Reviews from the District Court	2	2	5	1	4	2
	Reviews from the Magistrates' Courts	2	2	1	0	3	0
	Sub-total	6	4	6	1	9	2
	Total	646	718	999	654	599	889
Miscellaneous Proceedings⁺		-	83	204	-	39	178

*	Case disposal refers to appeals/reviews which have been allowed, dismissed, withdrawn, discontinued or abandoned with or without court order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 *
		2016	2017	2018	2016	2017	2018
Court of First Instance
Appellate
	Criminal
	Appeals from Magistrates' Courts	702	659	620	713	719	555
	Civil
	Appeals from Labour Tribunal	27	45	30	30	30	27
	Appeals from Small Claims Tribunal	44	66	63	49	43	56
	Appeals from Minor Employment Claims Adjudication Board	2	5	3	3	5	1
	Miscellaneous Appeals	5	3	3	2	5	5
	Sub-total	78	119	99	84	83	89
	Total	780	778	719	797	802	644

First Instance
	Criminal Jurisdiction
	Criminal Cases	497	449	421	506	519	433
	Confidential Miscellaneous Proceedings	405	382	402	405	382	402
	Application for Discharge	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Miscellaneous Proceedings (Criminal)^{^}	-	374	789	-	295	686
	Sub-total	902	1 205	1 612	911	1 196	1 521
	Civil Jurisdiction
	High Court Actions	3 448	3 041	3 010	2 093	1 971	1 709
	Miscellaneous Proceedings^@	3 617	2 778	2 274	2 577	2 205	1 497
	Bankruptcy & Companies Winding-up⁺	10 298	8 880	8 550	10 107	8 838	8 359
	Personal Injuries Actions	1 447	1 394	1 307	1 255	1 301	1 408
	Other cases^#	579	1 507	3 365	381	517	1 134
	Sub-total	19 389	17 600	18 506	16 413	14 832	14 107
	Total	20 291	18 805	20 118	17 324	16 028	15 628

	Masters Chambers
	Interlocutory hearings^**	27 684	24 882	24 530	24 798	22 549	21 924
	Taxation bills	654	681	638	426⁽¹⁾	527⁽¹⁾	486⁽¹⁾
	Probate
	Applications	18 368	20 477	20 797	18 189⁽²⁾	19 537⁽²⁾	19 886⁽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 into 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	2016	2017	2018
Court of Appeal
-	Criminal - from setting down of a case to hearing	50	46	47	49
	Civil - from application to fix date to hearing	90	86	89	88
Court of First Instance
	Criminal Fixture List - from filing of indictment to hearing*	-	291	164	167
	Civil Fixture List - from application to fix date to hearing	180	155	163	168
	Civil Running List - from not-to-be-warned date to hearing	30	13	16	38
	Appeals from Magistrates' Courts - from lodging of Notice of Appeal to hearing	90	105	91	103

A new Practice Direction on criminal proceedings in the Court of First Instance of the High Court was promulgated in June 2017 to enhance management of criminal proceedings. Having regard to the new procedures under the Practice Direction, consideration is being given to review how the average waiting time for the Criminal Fixture List should be measured. In addition, the Criminal Expedited List has replaced the Criminal Running List. The way to measure the average waiting times of the Criminal Expedited List and the setting of its target are being considered in the light of the operation of the new measures

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