Hong Kong Judiciary Annual Report 2018

Caseload, Case Disposal and Waiting Time at Different Court Levels

Magistrates' Courts

CASELOAD AND CASE DISPOSAL OF THE MAGISTRATES' COURTS

		Caseload			Disposal *
		2016	2017	2018	2016	2017	2018
-	Charge Cases	31 440	30 860	30 221	31 554	30 550	29 607
-	Hawker Cases	4 988	1 963	1 628	4 988	1 965	1 626
-	Departmental & Private Summonses	181 670	179 753	175 738	178 042	179 223	174 693
-	Driving-Offence Points Summonses	1 786	2 333	2 240	1 901	2 213	2 251
-	Fixed Penalty Summonses (Traffic)	611	606	532	611	617	530
-	Fixed Penalty Summonses (Public Cleanliness and Obstruction)^{^}	112	115	72	113	115	77
-	Fixed Penalty Summonses (Smoking Offences)	29	34	24	28	27	26
-	Fixed Penalty Summonses (Vehicle Idling)	0	0	0	0	0	0
-	Fixed Penalty Summonses (Mandatory Window Inspection)	6	8	13	6	5	16
-	Fixed Penalty Summonses (Plastic Shopping Bag)	3	2	0	2	3	0
-	Miscellaneous Proceedings	11 213	11 379	11 052	11 378	11 511	10 857
-	Departmental Notice	810	677	676	755	748	636
-	Fixed Penalty Notice (Traffic)	98 383	107 958	115 045	95 398	106 287	110 020
-	Fixed Penalty Notice (Public Cleanliness and Obstruction)^{^}	2 142	2 455	2 388	2 206	2 407	2 335
-	Fixed Penalty Notice (Smoking Offences)	846	823	861	796	872	870
-	Fixed Penalty Notice (Vehicle Idling)	0	0	0	0	0	0
-	Fixed Penalty Notice (Mandatory Window Inspection)	4	11	122	5	11	79
-	Fixed Penalty Recovery Order (Plastic Shopping Bag)	5	0	0	5	0	0
	Total	334 048	338 977	340 612	327 788	336 554	333 623

*	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trial or hearing, pre-hearing payments of all penalties and costs, and applications which have been granted, refused, withdrawn or struck out
^{^}	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	2016	2017	2018
Summonses - from plea to date of trial		50	67	65	76
Charge cases except for Juvenile Court - from plea to date of trial
-	For defendants in custody	30-45	36	31	47
-	For defendants on bail	45-60	41	40	57
Charge cases for Juvenile Court - from plea to date of trial
-	For defendants in custody	30-45	49	-*	-*
-	For defendants on bail	45-60	39	48	58

*	As there is no charge case for the Juvenile Court where the defendant is remanded in custody, the waiting time is inapplicable