Caseload, Case Disposal and Waiting Time at Different Court Levels

High Court

CASELOAD AND CASE DISPOSAL OF THE HIGH COURT

		Caseload			Disposal *
		2009	2010	2011	2009	2010	2011
Court of Appeal
Appellate
	Criminal
	Appeals from the Court of First Instance	131	128	162	111	142	114
	Appeals from the District Court	346	356	383	314	366	345
	Sub-total	477	484	545	425	508	459
	Civil
	Appeals from the Court of First Instance	213	222	230	219	192	166
	Appeals from the District Court	37	28	30	26	35	29
	Miscellaneous Appeals	35	34	31	36	48	25
	Sub-total	285	284	291	281	275	220
Review of Sentences
	Criminal
	Reviews from the Court of First Instance	1	2	2	2	0	3
	Reviews from the District Court	7	11	7	7	7	4
	Reviews from the Magistrates' Courts	1	1	2	1	0	1
	Sub-total	9	14	11	10	7	8
	Total	771	782	847	716	790	687

*	Case disposal refers to appeals/reviews which have been allowed, dismissed, withdrawn, discontinued or abandoned with or without court order

		Caseload			Disposal *
		2009	2010	2011	2009	2010	2011
Court of First Instance
Appellate
	Criminal
	Appeals from Magistrates' Courts	1 043	980	897	996	994	877
	Civil
	Appeals from Labour Tribunal	42	26	33	41	21	29
	Appeals from Small Claims Tribunal	53	51	38	50	40	37
	Appeals from Minor Employment Claims Adjudication Board	8	17	6	5	14	8
	Miscellaneous Appeals	10	4	2	6	4	5
	Sub-total	113	98	79	102	79	79
	Total	1 156	1 078	976	1 098	1 073	956

First Instance
	Criminal Jurisdiction
	Criminal Cases	425	444	482	367	419	464
	Confidential Miscellaneous Proceedings	64	96	100	64	96	100
	Application for Discharge	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Sub-total	489	540	582	431	515	564
	Civil Jurisdiction^{^}
	High Court Actions	2 574	1 907	2 237	1 891	1 492	1 475
	Miscellaneous Proceedings	2 701	2 626	2 700	1 761	1 795	1 984
	Bankruptcy & Companies Winding-up+	19 693	10 680	9 464	17 105	11 062	9 421
	Personal Injuries Actions	872	706	941	677	865	691
	Other cases ^#	611	564	545	330	324	265
	Sub-total	26 451	16 483	15 887	21 764	15 538	13 836
	Total	26 940	17 023	16 469	22 195	16 053	14 400

	Masters Chambers
	Interlocutory hearings^**	35 574	21 701	20 405	34 176	20 881	18 506
	Taxation bills	1 032	669	678	958⁽¹⁾	502⁽¹⁾	561⁽¹⁾
	Probate
	Applications	14 676	14 350	16 319	14 466⁽²⁾	13 909⁽²⁾	14 525⁽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*	Case disposal refers to appeals which have been allowed, dismissed, withdrawn, discontinued or abandoned with or without court order; criminal cases where defendants have been convicted or acquitted; and civil cases where claims have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
^	On or before 2009, the definition under civil jurisdiction was based on party disposal, i.e. a case was treated as disposed of once one party in a case had been disposed of. Since 2010, the definition has been refined to the effect that a case is considered as disposed of only when all the parties involved have been disposed of
+	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

AVERAGE WAITING TIME FOR CASES IN THE HIGH COURT

		Average Waiting Time (days)
		Target	2009	2010	2011
Court of Appeal
-	Criminal - from setting down of a case to hearing	50	50	50	53
	Civil - from application to fix date to hearing	90	94	89	117
Court of First Instance
	Criminal Fixture List - from filing of indictment to hearing	120	137	166	169
	Criminal Running List - from setting down of a case to hearing	90	85	81	79
	Civil Fixture List - from application to fix date to hearing	180	179	215	231
	Civil Running List - from setting down of a case to hearing	90	55	60	83
	Appeals from Magistrates' Courts - from lodging of Notice of Appeal to hearing	90	95	95	86