High Court Civil National Performance Measures
Contents
Summary of performance in 2012
Clearance rate
Waiting time to trial
Earliest available date
Time to judgment
Footnotes
The performance measures presented here provide a set of indicators (over a 12 month period or as at 31 December 2012 depending on the measure) that are used to monitor the performance of the High Court’s civil jurisdiction. Performance standards for each measure (by case type where applicable) have been determined by the High Court judiciary.
The performance measures are:
- Clearance rate
- Waiting time to trial
- Earliest available date
- Time to judgment
For clearance rate, waiting time to trial, and earliest available date target compliance of 80% has been set.
For time to judgment, a target compliance of 90% judgment delivery within 3 months has been set.
The case types are:
- Originating applications
- Judicial review
- Appeals
- Insolvency
- Probate (clearance rate only)
- General proceedings (long cause and short cause)
Long cause matters have an estimated hearing time of more than 5 days.
Short cause matters have an estimated hearing time of 5 days or less.
Each performance measure is defined, the purpose described, and actual performance presented. Data as at 31 December 2012 is used [1].
Summary of performance in 2012
Clearance rates
Filings for most case types decreased over the last year and disposals have generally kept pace with new filings impacting positively on clearance rates. The exception to this was judicial reviews where there was an increase of 31% in filings over the last year predominantly in Auckland, affecting the clearance rate for judicial reviews (89%).
Waiting time to trial
Targets for waiting time to trial are being exceeded for all case types. For general proceedings (both short and long cause) this is positive given that the number of such cases awaiting hearing is 16% higher than in December 2011.
Earliest available date
More than 90% of the time, registries are able to provide a fixture date for a case that is ready for hearing (short or long cause) within 9 months in all High Court registries.
Time to judgment
The ‘time to judgment’ target of 90% judgment delivery within 3 months was met in 2012.
Clearance rate
| Clearance rate | ||||||
| General proceedings | Originating applications | Judicial review | Appeals | Insolvency | Probates | |
| Performance standard | 100% | |||||
| Actual (12 month) | 112% | 101% | 89% | 95% | 103% | 99% |
Definition:
Clearance is calculated by the number of disposals in a given period as a percentage of the new business that came into the court in the same period. When the clearance rate is equal to 100% disposals are keeping up with new business when the clearance rate is above 100% disposals are exceeding new business and when the clearance rate is less than 100% disposals are not keeping up with new business.
Purpose:
Clearance rate measures whether the court is keeping up with its incoming caseload. If cases are not disposed in a timely manner, a backlog of cases awaiting disposition will grow. Knowledge of clearance rates by case type can help a court pinpoint emerging problems and indicate where improvements may be made. Courts should aspire to clear (dispose of) at least as many cases as have been filed/reopened/reactivated in a period by having a clearance rate of 100 percent or higher.
Waiting time to trial
| General proceedings - short cause | General proceedings - long cause | Originating applications | Judicial review | Appeals | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Performance standard | 12 months | 18 months | < 6 months | ||
| Target compliance | 80% | ||||
| Actual compliance (month) | 94% | 94% | 82% | 81% | 80% |
Definition:
Waiting time to trial measures the length of time from when a case is certified capable of being readied for hearing until the future date of the scheduled substantive hearing, for cases which have a scheduled date of hearing.
Purpose:
The waiting time to trial measure is an indicator of the ability of the Court to provide a timely hearing date for cases that are ready to proceed, and of the effectiveness of the Court’s scheduling practices. When a case is certified “can be readied for hearing” preparation may still be required including completion of discovery and preparation of evidence.
Earliest available date
| Earliest available date | |
|---|---|
| Time to earliest available trial date | |
| Performance standard | <9 months |
| Target compliance | 80% |
| Actual compliance (12 month) |
90% |
Definition:
This measure is defined as the time from the reporting month end to the earliest available date for any block of hearing time across all High Court registries. The performance standard requires that at least 80% of the time, a hearing fixture can be provided within 9 months for a case that is ready for hearing any length of hearing time in any registry.
Purpose:
Time to earliest available date is an indicator of the court’s ability to provide a fixture in a timely manner, should a case be ready for hearing.
Time to judgment
| Time to judgement | |
|---|---|
| Performance standard | < 3 months |
| Target compliance | 90% |
| Actual compliance | 92% |
Definition:
This measure is defined as the time from last day of the hearing or receipt of final submissions to the date of judgment delivery. It includes judgments delivered ‘on the papers’ [2] which are assumed to be delivered in less than 3 months. A judgment is classified as a decision that receives a citation number from the High Court’s citation database it therefore excludes for example minutes, undefended summary judgments, judgments on undefended insolvency applications, and judgments by default. The source of the data is the citation database.
Footnotes
[1] The explanations provided below have been drawn from material available in the Trial Court Performance Measures section of the Courtools website (developed by the National Centre for State Courts (US)), as well as definitions developed by the Higher Courts Business Unit, Ministry of Justice. The data used is sourced from the Ministry’s Case Management System, and for the Earliest Available Date measure, from each High Court registry’s scheduling staff.
[2] Judgments ‘on the papers’ are recorded as issued on the day.