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District Court Jury Trial Workload Statistics

Cases in Cases out Totals
  Jan - Dec 2015 Jan - Dec 2015 Jan - Dec 2015 31-Dec-15
  New jury trials Transfers in Disposals Transfers out Cases in Cases out Active
Auckland DC 481 24 465 37 505 502 322
Blenheim DC 50 2 38 2 52 40 32
Christchurch DC 174 11 164 11 185 175 132
Dunedin DC 101 1 86 5 102 91 51
Gisborne DC 64 3 39 4 67 43 51
Greymouth DC 16 6 20 5 22 25 12
Hamilton DC 242 9 207 10 251 217 190
Invercargill DC 105 0 100 1 105 101 66
Kaikohe DC 50 0 38 4 50 42 41
Manukau DC 443 16 335 17 459 352 347
Napier DC 122 5 118 5 127 123 78
Nelson DC 141 4 111 6 145 117 124
New Plymouth DC 32 1 42 0 33 42 20
Palmerston North DC 70 6 48 3 76 51 49
Rotorua DC 124 5 108 8 129 116 79
Tauranga DC 127 4 93 4 131 97 84
Timaru DC 21 1 19 0 22 19 21
Wanganui DC 116 3 83 5 119 88 85
Wellington DC 186 9 255 16 195 271 145
Whangarei DC 81 7 84 3 88 87 74
Total Jury Courts 2,746   2,453       2,003

Note:

This table is a subset of the total Criminal Courts table.

The Criminal Procedure Act 2011 came into force on 1 July 2013. It changed the landscape for criminal cases.

Prior to July 2013, charges were laid summarily or indictably, which effectively determined the path they followed in Court. Historical reporting was created based on the pathways that cases were expected to follow - criminal summary, indictable pre-committal, and indictable post-committal (jury trial). Cases were counted as new business and disposals within each of these court processes. Transfers into a process were counted as new business, and transfers out as disposals. Reporting was based on parts of the criminal process, and never on the whole.

New reporting reflects a holistic approach, focussed on total criminal cases, and on the subsets with special requirements: District Court jury trials, Youth Court cases and cases to be tried and/or sentenced in the High Court.

A case is now counted as new business when it first comes into the system, that is when charges are filed. It is counted as a disposal only when it has final charge outcomes for all its charges. Reporting of annual statistics from July 2013 uses new terminology in order to count transfers between courts and parts of the process: cases in alongside new business and cases out alongside disposals.

Jury trial (subset of total)

Cases in is the sum of cases where an election of jury trial has been made (if required) and the case review process completed, cases committed for trial (under the pre-CPA process), cases where a retrial has been directed, severed cases and other cases transferred into the court. At court location level, they also include transfers from other parts of the country.

It excludes cases reactivated in the court due to the execution or withdrawal of a warrant to arrest.

Disposals/Cases out

Cases out is the sum of cases where sentencing or other final outcomes are established on all charges, cases where all the charges are joined into another case, and cases transferred out of the court.

At court location level, they also include transfers to other parts of the country.

This includes cases where the defendant was convicted and sentenced or discharged, or the case dismissed, withdrawn, or stayed. It excludes cases put on hold due to the issuing of a warrant to arrest the defendant.

Total active

Active cases are those which are awaiting trial or are awaiting sentencing or other final outcome, and are not on hold due to the issuing of a warrant to arrest the defendant.

This includes cases where the defendant is yet to appear in court, or yet to make a plea, the case is in the review process, or the case is awaiting a pre-trial decision .