Overall picture on caseload and disposal at all Court levels

High Court

CASELOAD AND CASE DISPOSAL OF THE HIGH COURT

		Caseload			Disposal *
		2007	2008	2009	2007	2008	2009
Court of Appeal
Appellate
	Criminal
	Appeals from the Court of First Instance	119	126	131	126	129	111
	Appeals from the District Court	357	304	346	375	357	314
	Sub-total	476	430	477	501	486	425
	Civil
	Appeals from the Court of First Instance	306	313	213	288	295	219
	Appeals from the District Court	53	29	37	37	37	26
	Miscellaneous Appeals	62	43	35	38	39	36
	Sub-total	421	385	285	363	371	281
Review of Sentences
	Criminal
	Reviews from the Court of First Instance	0	2	1	1	2	2
	Reviews from the District Court	7	5	7	5	6	7
	Reviews from the Magistrates' Courts	5	2	1	2	7	1
	Sub-total	12	9	9	8	15	10
	Total	909	824	771	872	872	716

*	Case disposal refers to appeals/reviews which have been allowed, dismissed, withdrawn, discontinued or abandoned with or without court order

		Caseload			Disposal *
		2007	2008	2009	2007	2008	2009
Court of First Instance
Appellate
	Criminal
	Appeals from Magistrates' Courts	1 234	1 125	1 043	1 185	1 156	996
	Civil
	Appeals from Labour Tribunal	51	47	42	42	50	41
	Appeals from Small Claims Tribunal	81	50	53	50	59	50
	Appeals from Minor Employment Claims Adjudication Board	12	10	8	5	13	5
	Miscellaneous Appeals	9	4	10	5	7	6
	Sub-total	153	111	113	102	129	102
	Total	1 387	1 236	1 156	1 287	1 285	1 098

First Instance
	Criminal Jurisdiction
	Criminal Cases	312	311	425	311	301	367
	Confidential Miscellaneous Proceedings	56	64	64	56	64	64
	Application for Discharge	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Sub-total	368	375	489	367	365	431
	Civil Jurisdiction
	High Court Actions	2 678	2 784	2 574	1 768	1 741	1 891
	Miscellaneous Proceedings	2 596	2 631	2 701	1 631	1 679	1 761
	Bankruptcy & Companies Winding-up+	13 620	14 500	19 693	11 821	11 629	17 105
	Personal Injuries Actions	1 094	951	872	935	927	677
	Other cases ^#	516	537	611	238	253	330
	Sub-total	20 504	21 403	26 451	16 393	16 229	21 764
	Total	20 872	21 778	26 940	16 760	16 594	22 195

	Masters Chambers
	Interlocutory hearings^**	30 429	29 287	35 574	28 575	26 660	34 176
	Taxation bills	1 036	1 043	1 032	976⁽¹⁾	970⁽¹⁾	958⁽¹⁾
	Probate
	Applications	13 483	13 339	14 676	13 541⁽²⁾	12 958⁽²⁾	14 466⁽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*	Case disposal refers to appeals which have been allowed, dismissed, withdrawn, discontinued or abandoned with or without court order; criminal cases where defendants have been convicted or acquitted; and civil cases where claims have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

WAITING TIME FOR CASES IN THE HIGH COURT

		Waiting Times (days)
		Target	2007	2008	2009
Court of Appeal
-	Criminal cases - from setting down of a case to hearing	50	50	42	50
	Civil cases - from application to fix date to hearing	90	87	85	94
Court of First Instance
	Criminal Fixture - from filing of indictment to hearing	120	109	112	137
	Criminal Running List - from setting down to hearing	90	57	63	85
	Civil Fixture - from application to fix date to hearing	180	114	145	179
	Civil Running List - from setting down to hearing	90	61	59	55
	Appeals from Magistrates' Courts - from lodging of Notice of Appeal to hearing	90	91	90	95