Supreme Court

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.

Overall, the number of applications for leave to appeal has decreased slightly from 174 in 2013/14 to 172 in the 2014/15 year.

In the 2014/2015 calendar year:

• 26 new appeals were filed, (down from 36 in the previous 12 months)
• 40 separate judgments disposed 41 appeals, with one appeal abandoned (compared to the previous 12 months where 26 separate judgments disposed 27 appeals, with one appeal abandoned).

As at 30 June 2015 there were 17 active appeals (awaiting hearing or judgment) compared with 31 as at 30 June 2014.

Statistics