District Courts
District Courts
Jurisdiction
The New Zealand District Courts have originating jurisdiction over all criminal matters. They ultimately deal with all but a small number of serious offences which are dealt with by the High Court. In its civil jurisdiction the District Courts can hear general claims up to $200,000.
The Family Court and Youth Court are divisions of the District Court.
These are the annual statistics for the District Court, including the Family Court and Youth Court for 2013. Refer to the glossary for definitions of terms in this commentary.
Closed Courts
On 1 March 2013 the District Courts based at Feilding, Warkworth and Whataroa were closed; On 22 March 2013 the Lower Hutt and Upper Hutt District Courts were merged to form the new Hutt Valley District Court, based in Lower Hutt.
In addition, during March 2013, the courts based at the following locations became Hearing Courts (which means that staff are not based there except when a hearing is in progress): Balclutha, Dargaville, Marton, Oamaru, Opotiki, Te Awamutu, Te Kuiti, Waihi and Waipukurau.
Criminal Jurisdiction
Criminal Procedure Act 2011
On 1 July 2013 the processes for filing and progressing criminal cases through the courts changed due to the implementation of the Criminal Procedure Act 2011 (CPA). Pre-1 July 2013 cases will continue to be a feature of the District Courts’ workload until those cases reach completion.
As at 31 December 2013, approximately 80% of active criminal cases were progressing under the Criminal Procedure Act 2011.
Total Criminal for District Court and Youth Court
The criminal cases dealt with in the District Courts are heard by District Court Judges, Community Magistrates and Justices of the Peace depending upon the seriousness of cases.
Comparing 2012 to 2013 this jurisdiction has seen a:
- 10% decrease in new business to 139,152 cases
- 12% decrease in disposals to 142,300
- 10% decrease in active cases to 30,620
The reduction in new business is attributable to Police continuing to make greater use of pre charge warnings, which aims to divert lower end offences away from prosecution and court proceedings.
Jury trials – subset of total criminal
The jury trial jurisdiction deals with the more serious criminal cases. The District Court jury trial caseload is made up of cases commenced under either the Summary Proceedings Act 1957 (SPA) or the Criminal Procedure Act 2011 (CPA).
As there are two procedural regimes in place, jury trial case statistics comprise cases committed for trial under the SPA and cases ready for trial (post case review hearing and following an election of trial by jury) under the CPA.
Comparing 2012 to 2013 this jurisdiction has seen:
- a 10% decrease for the number of new cases to 2,670
- an 8% increase in disposals to 3,324 cases
- a 24% decrease in active cases to 1,906 cases
A sustained effort by the judiciary and the Ministry over the past two years has resulted in an increase in District Court jury trial case disposals. This included more efficient deployment of the judicial resource and innovative case management techniques developed by the National Jury Trial Judge.
Youth Court – subset of total criminal
The Youth Court deals with offending by young people (aged 14-16) and may deal with some children (those aged 12-13 who are charged with particularly serious offences or repeat offending). The Youth Court can hear and determine all but a few categories of charge that a young person might face. Only approximately 20% of offences by children and young people come to court. The rest are managed by Police Youth Aid (who can offer community-based diversion) and Child, Youth and Family. Of those cases that do come to court, the majority are dealt with via a Family Group Conference and are disposed of without formal orders being made.
Comparing 2012 to 2013 this jurisdiction has seen:
- a 7% decrease for new cases to 3,996
- an 11% decrease in disposals to 3,811
- a 1% increase in active cases to 1,257
Civil Jurisdiction
The majority of cases in the civil system are resolved without proceeding to hearing and are not included in figures.
Comparing 2013 to 2012 this jurisdiction has seen a:
- 20% decrease in the number of newly defended cases to 522
- 14% decrease in the disposals of defended cases to 572
- 8% decrease in the number of active cases on hand at the end of each year to 557
Family Court Jurisdiction
The Family Court makes orders for any person (including the unborn) in need of care and protection. Not only is the age band wide but the variety of cases that come before the Court is considerable.
The number of individual applications is recorded by the Family Court as opposed to the number of cases. This is due to the fact that each case may involve several applications. Therefore, the numbers reported below do not represent either the numbers of litigants or substantive cases before the Family Court.
Applications are grouped under the following Case Types:
- Guardianship
- Children, young persons and their families
- Dissolution
- Domestic violence
- Mental health
- Protection of personal and property rights
- Property
- Other
One third of all applications fall within the Guardianship case type. These applications are made under the Care of Children Act and relate to care arrangements for children.
Comparing 2013 to 2012 this jurisdiction has seen a:
- 2% decrease in the total number of new applications to 62,968
- 8% decrease in the total number of disposals of applications to 60,652
- 10% increase in the number of active applications on hand at the end 2012 to 25,667 at the end of 2013.
Family Justice Implementation Project
In late March 2014 a number of changes to the family law system will be implemented. These changes focus on amendments to the Care of Children Act and will therefore affect the statistics for the Guardianship case type.