High Court
Contents
Criminal jurisdiction
Civil jurisdiction
Statistics
The High Court hears the more serious and complex criminal and civil cases. It also hears appeals from lower courts and tribunals.
The civil jurisdiction accounts for approximately 60% of the court’s overall workload, with the criminal jurisdiction accounting for around 40%.
In the criminal jurisdiction, complex cases or cases involving multiple accused are a feature of cases heard. High Court jury trials usually take longer than a week to hear.
The High Court in Auckland deals with around half of the High Court’s overall workload.
These statistics are for the 12 months to 30 June 2013.
Criminal jurisdiction
Jury trials
Over the last five years, jury trials new business has shown considerable variability. New business dropped sharply following the legislative reclassification in July 2008 of some Class A drug offending so that they are no longer High Court only offences. From mid 2009 new business then remained relatively steady for 12 months until a further sharp drop in new business occurred between mid 2010 and the end of 2011. Since that time there has been a steady increase in new business so that it is nearly at levels seen in mid 2009.
Over the last year, the number of new jury trial cases received by the High Court has increased 13% to 244, up from 213 in the 12 months to 30 June 2012. There are now 18% more active jury trials than a year ago.
The number of cases disposed increased by 18% to 215 in the 12 months ending 30 June 2013 (up from 182 in the 12 months to 30 June 2012). This increase in disposals was largely due to an increase in guilty pleas before trial. In the last 12 months there were 67 guilty pleas before trial which account for 31% of all jury trial cases disposed over the period. It may be that the significant increase in guilty pleas before trial is partly due to the introduction of sentence indications. [1]
There has been a 14% increase in the number of trials held, from 106 in the 12 months to 30 June 2012 to 121 over the past 12 months. The High Court has heard a number of particularly long trials (30 days or more) in the past year.
The median waiting time to trial from committal to the High Court (as at 30 June 2013) was 327 days, an increase of 15 days from the same time in June 2012. In the last 12 months, the Court has granted a number of late adjournments in the interests of justice, which required new trial dates to be allocated, and affected the overall waiting time to trial.
Criminal appeals
New criminal appeals increased slightly over the last year: 1,140 new criminal appeals were filed in the past 12 months, up from 1,109 in the 12 months to 30 June 2012. Over the same period there were 1,168 disposals, a 5% decrease from the 1,224 in the 12 months to 30 June 2012. As at 30 June 2013 there were 206 active appeals, a 10% decrease from 30 June 2012, when there were 230 active appeals.
Civil jurisdiction
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Note: Civil cases in this context include: general proceedings, judicial reviews, and originating applications. Insolvency cases are bankruptcy cases (where a creditor’s petition has been filed) and company liquidations. Civil appeals are matters in the civil jurisdiction appealed to the High Court from either the District Court or a tribunal. The reporting for the June 2013 annual statistics does not include claims of historic abuse occurring within state institutions (a total of 323 cases). The significant majority of these cases are concluded by confidential settlement carried out with little input by the Court. They are excluded because they do not follow the normal process for progression through the Court. For this reason new business, disposal, and active case data for general proceedings in the June 2013 annual statistics cannot be compared to previously published annual statistics. |
As a result of the economic downturn following the global financial crisis [2], there was a significant increase in new civil business in the period leading up to mid 2010. Filings peaked in mid-2010, and since then there has been a declining trend in the total number of civil cases filed in the High Court. [3] This filing pattern reflects the impact of the economic cycle. In the 12 months ending 30 June 2013, the number of civil cases filed fell 8% to 2,720 cases compared to 2,943 cases in the previous year. In the six months ending 30 June 2013, the number of civil cases filed fell by 4%.
Auckland accounted for 54% of all civil cases filed in the 12 months ending June 2013.
A feature of civil jurisdiction is that many cases are disposed of in some way before trial. Approximately 80% of general proceedings filed are disposed in the initial phase (prior to being deemed ready for hearing). Approximately 10% dispose in the pre-trial window (that is after being deemed ready for hearing but prior to trial). Of the remaining 10%, a small percentage settle during trial and the balance go to trial. Recently about 8% of general proceedings have been resolved by trial.
There were 2,669 of civil cases disposed of in the 12 months to 30 June 2013; a 19% decrease compared to 3,304 disposals in the 12 months to 30 June 2012. While this decrease appears significant, there are several reasons for it. Firstly, there has been a decrease in new general proceedings filed (notably those with summary judgment applications) in the last two years. Secondly, there has been a decrease in new originating applications filed in the last year. Thirdly, there were an unusually large number of settlements in the 12 months to 30 June 2012. However, the percentage of civil cases disposed by trial in the 12 months to 30 June 2013 is similar to the previous 12 months.
As at 30 June 2013 there were 2,028 active civil cases (awaiting hearing or judgment), a 4% increase compared to 30 June 2012 when there were 1,952 active civil cases.
General proceedings are most representative of a standard civil dispute brought to court. The median waiting time to trial for general proceedings (measured from the date the case was deemed ready for hearing to the future hearing date) as at 30 June 2013 was 308 days, compared with 292 days in 2011/12. Nevertheless waiting time to trial for over 85% of short cause [4] general proceedings on hand is less than 12 months; and for over 90% of long cause [5] general proceedings on hand is less than 18 months. Both these figures are within the performance standard timeframes set by the Court that are reported against each calendar year. High Court Civil National Performance Measures.
The number of insolvency cases filed in the High Court has been declining since the start of 2011, after a significant increase in filings over several years that peaked in early 2009, as a result of the economic downturn. As at 30 June 2013 there were 706 active insolvency proceedings (awaiting hearing or judgment), similar to the number on hand at 30 June 2012, when there were 714 active insolvency proceedings.
There were 322 civil appeals filed in the 12 months to 30 June 2013; this is similar to the previous 12 months. The number of active civil appeals (awaiting hearing or awaiting judgment) is also at similar levels to last year.
Statistics
[1] A sentence indication is a statement by the Court that, if the defendant pleads guilty to a charge, the Court would be likely to impose a given sentence. It is given at the request of the defendant, before trial. Sentence indication hearings in the High Court have been introduced following codification of sentence indications in the Criminal Procedure Act 2011.
[2] New Zealand Economic and Financial Overview 2012
[3] Although there has been a recent increase in the number of judicial reviews filed.
[4] Short cause general proceedings have an estimated hearing time of 5 days or less.
[5] Long cause general proceedings have an estimated hearing time of more than 5 days.