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 decreased between June 2011 and September 2012. However, from October 2012 there has been a steady increase in the number of applications for leave to appeal, from 114 in 2012/13 to 174 in 2013/14.

In the 2013/14 financial year:

• 36 new appeals were filed, (up from 6 in the previous 12 months)
• 26 separate judgments disposed 27 appeals and one appeal was abandoned (compared to the previous 12 months where 18 separate judgments disposed 21 appeals and a further three appeals were abandoned).

As at 30 June 2014 there were 31 active appeals (awaiting hearing or judgment) compared with 22 as at 30 June 2013.

Statistics