District Courts
District Courts
Prior to June 2009, new business entering the courts increased significantly. Since December 2009, the trend has reversed and all jurisdictions have experienced reductions in the levels of new business.
Refer to the Glossary for more detailed definitions.
Criminal
Criminal jury trial jurisdiction
The jury trial jurisdiction deals with more serious criminal cases, after defendants are committed for trial from criminal and youth pre-committal processes.
Compared to 2011, the 2012 calendar year has seen
- an 8% decrease in the number of cases (new business) committed for jury trial, to 2,982 cases
- a 2% increase in disposals to 3,088 cases
- a 4% decrease in active cases to 2,494 cases.
Criminal - summary jurisdiction
The summary jurisdiction deals with less serious criminal cases. These cases are heard by District Court judges, community magistrates, and justices of the peace. This is the busiest jurisdiction in the court system. Reduction in new business since December 2009 is primarily as a result of Police making greater use of pre charge warnings, which aims to divert lower end offences away from prosecution and court proceedings.
Compared to 2011, the 2012 calendar year has seen
- a 14% decrease in new business to 144,577 cases, this continues a decreasing trend since 2009
- a 10% decrease in disposals to 151,067
- a 14% decrease in active cases to 28,616
Youth Court
The Youth Court is part of the District Court and deals mostly with people aged between 12 and 16 years old. The Youth Court is a closed court and deals with offending by children and young people that is too serious to be dealt with any other way. It hears all cases to do with young people, except murder and manslaughter, or when a young person chooses to have a jury trial.
The Youth Court has a focus on encouraging the young person to take responsibility for their offending.
Compared to 2011, the 2012 calendar year has seen
- a 20% decrease in new youth summary cases to 3,968
- a 15% decrease in disposals to 3,946
- an 18% decrease in active cases to 1,049
Civil Jurisdiction
The number of new defended civil cases in the past three years has remained lower than earlier years as a result of the District Court Civil Rules (implemented in November 2009) which encourage parties to settle their cases without court involvement.
Compared to 2011, the 2012 calendar year has seen
- a 3% increase in defended new business to 637 cases
- a 15% decrease in the disposals of defended cases to 660
- a 3% decrease to 604 in the number of cases on hand, because the courts disposed of more cases than the number of cases filed
Family Jurisdiction
Substantive applications rather than cases are counted in the family jurisdiction because various applications within any one case may be managed separately.
Substantive applications are grouped into the following types:
- adoption
- alcohol and drugs
- child support
- children, young persons and their families (CYPF)
- dissolution/marriage
- domestic violence
- estates
- family proceedings
- guardianship (Care of Children Act)
- Hague Convention
- mental health
- protection of personal and property rights (PPPR)
- relationship property
- miscellaneous.
Compared to 2011, the 2012 calendar year has seen
- a 1% decrease in new applications to 63,775
- applications disposed increased by 77 to 65,087
- a 10% decrease in the number of active applications to 24,024
Disputes Tribunal
Compared to 2011, 2012 has seen a
- a 1% increase in new and reactivated claims to 16,719
- a 7% decrease in the disposals of claims to 16,395
- a 14% increase in the number of active claims to 3,303