Supreme Court

The Supreme Court is New Zealand’s final court of appeal. It deals with criminal and civil appeals from the lower courts. The Supreme Court must grant leave before an appeal can begin.

The number of applications for leave to appeal filed in the Supreme Court has been fluctuating month to month in 2014. Overall, the number of applications for leave to appeal [1] has increased from 153 in 2013 to 166 in 2014.

In the 2014 calendar year:

• 26 new appeals were filed, (down from 42 in the previous 12 months)
• 26 separate judgments disposed 27 appeals and one appeal was abandoned (compared to the previous 12 months where 17 separate judgments disposed 18 appeals and one appeal was abandoned).

As at 31 December 2014 there were 24 active appeals (awaiting hearing or judgment) compared with 34 as at 31 December 2013.

Statistics

[1] Leave to appeal includes applications for recall.