Judicial Statistics

June 2008

Introduction
Part A: The Court of Appeal
Part B: The High Court
Part C: Crown Court
Part D: County Court
Part E: Magistrates’ Courts
Part F: Children Order
Part G Miscellaneous
Appendix 1: Judge court sitting days

Introduction

1 Contents

The statistics in this report relate to the criminal, civil and family business conducted by the Northern Ireland Court Service (NICtS) and to the work of some associated tribunals and offices. This introduction sets out a brief description of the courts and the business that the statistics relate to.

2 The Court Structure

The Court of Appeal: The Court of Appeal sits at the Royal Courts of Justice in Belfast. The Judges of the Court of Appeal are the Lord Chief Justice (who is the President of the Court of Appeal) and three Lords Justices of Appeal. High Court Judges can sit in the Court of Appeal on criminal causes or matters. The Court of Appeal hears appeals in criminal matters from the Crown Court and civil matters from the High Court (including Judicial Reviews). It also hears appeals on points of law from the county courts, magistrates’ courts and certain appeal tribunals.

The High Court: The High Court sits at the Royal Courts of Justice in Belfast. It consists of the Lord Chief Justice (who is the President of the High Court), and three Lords Justices of Appeal along with ten High Court Judges and two temporary High Court Judges. The High Court hears high value and complex civil cases. The High Court comprises three Divisions: the Chancery Division, Queen’s Bench Division and Family Division.

The Crown Court: The Crown Court has exclusive jurisdiction to try offences charged on indictment. Offences tried on indictment are more serious offences. The Lord Chief Justice is President of the Crown Court and the Lords Justices of Appeal, High Court Judges and county court judges all sit in the Crown Court. The Crown Court sits throughout Northern Ireland.

The County Court: In Northern Ireland, there are seven county court divisions with seventeen county court judges and four district judges. Civil cases are commenced in the county court if the value of the case is less than £15,000. However, for claims concerning matrimonial property or compensation for criminal injuries or criminal damage to property, there is no financial limit. The county court also has jurisdiction to hear applications for adoptions and undefended divorces. Applications for intoxicating liquor licences and certificates of registration for clubs are also made to the county court. In addition to its original civil jurisdiction the county court hears appeals under a number of statutory provisions from the magistrates’ courts or from other tribunals.

The Magistrates’ Court: There are twenty-one petty sessions’ districts in Northern Ireland. A magistrates’ court (other than a youth court or family proceedings court) is presided over by a Resident Magistrate1 sitting alone. The present complement of Resident Magistrates is twenty-one. The magistrates’ court hears and determines less serious criminal cases, cases involving youth and some civil and domestic cases including family proceedings.

Coroners’ Court: The Coroners Service is headed by a High Court Judge. There is one Senior Coroner and two Coroners. They deal with matters relating to deaths that may require further investigation to establish the cause of death.

Social Security Commissioners and Child Support Commissioners: Social Security Commissioners hear appeals from Appeal Tribunals in relation to matters arising under the social security system. Child Support Commissioners hear appeals from Child Support Appeal Tribunals.

The Enforcement of Judgments Office: The Enforcement of Judgments Office (EJO) deals with enforcing money judgments and also enforces other types of civil judgments such as those that are connected with the possession of land and property.

3 Databases

There are a number of databases that are used to carry out the analysis in this report. As these are current databases, the figures here are taken at a cut off point of the 31 March 2009.

In previous years, Judicial Statistics reported on and compared business in the courts between years. In 2005, a new court operations system called the Integrated Court Operations System (ICOS) was introduced in the High Court and county court. Regular downloads of information are available from this new system, and this has resulted in access to more detailed information across all court tiers. The High Court and county court sections have been completed based on ICOS and caution should be taken when comparing figures prior to 2005.

During 2006, ICOS was introduced in the Crown Court and criminal magistrates’ court and these sections have been completed from the information extracted from ICOS. Caution should be taken when comparing figures prior to 2006.

During 2007, the civil and family module of ICOS was completed. This affects the information in the civil and family magistrates’ court section and also in the Children Order section. For further advice on the differences between 2008 figures and previous years, please contact the NICtS.

Part A: The Court of Appeal

The Court of Appeal is divided into civil and criminal. It hears appeals from decisions in the High Court and against convictions and sentences passed by the Crown Court and cases stated from other court tiers. It also hears appeals from tribunals and outside bodies.

Key facts during 2008

78 criminal appeals were lodged in the Court of Appeal
58 criminal appeals were disposed of in the Court of Appeal
31 criminal appeals were successful
96 civil appeals were set down in the Court of Appeal
78 civil appeals were disposed of in the Court of Appeal

Section 1: Criminal appeals

The number of criminal appeals lodged in 2008 increased from 47 in 2007 to 78 in 2008 (Table A.1).

There were 56 appeals lodged against sentence only, 14 were against conviction while the remaining 8 were against both conviction and sentence. Of the 78 appeals lodged during 2008, 12 resulted from trials dealing with scheduled offences (Table A.2).

There were 31 successful appeals in 2008 with 2 appeals refused, and 11 appeals abandoned or withdrawn (Table A.3).

Section 2: Civil appeals

There were 96 civil appeals set down in 2008, 2 more than the 2007 total of 94. As in previous years, the main source of civil appeals was the Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court with 37 cases set down. A total of 78 appeals were disposed of during the year (Table A.4).

Section 3: Court sitting times

The number of court sitting days spent on criminal appeals (by majority type of work) increased from 57 days in 2007 to 62 days in 2008. A total of 105 hours were spent in court hearing criminal appeals in 2008 compared with 97 court hours in 2007. There were 89 court sitting days (by majority type of work) spent on civil appeals during 2008 compared with 83 in 2007. A total of 159 hours were spent in court hearing civil appeals in 2008 compared with 164 court hours during 2007 (Figure A.2 & Table B.40).

Part B: The High Court

The High Court is a civil court which consists of the Chancery Division, Queen’s Bench Division and the Family Division.

Key facts during 2008

3,630 mortgage applications were entered in Chancery
3,518 bankruptcy proceedings were entered
3,049 bankruptcy proceedings were disposed of
380 companies proceedings were disposed of
5,956 writs and originating summonses were received
742 judgments by default were entered
3,055 divorce petitions were filed in the High Court
1,930 applications for bail were received

Section 1: Chancery

Table B.1 shows that during 2008, a total of 4,130 Chancery writs and originating summonses were issued. Mortgage suits continue to account for the majority (88%) of writs and originating summonses issued. The number of mortgages received has increased by 64% during 2008. (2,212 in 2007 compared to 3,630 in 2008).

There were 2,978 cases and applications disposed of in 2008. Mortgages accounted for the majority of disposals with 2,009 cases disposed of. (Table B.2).

Section 2: Bankruptcy

There were 3,518 bankruptcy proceedings issued in 2008. These included 2,022 bankruptcy petitions, 79% of which were creditor petitions (Petition by another person). Other bankruptcy proceedings included 164 originating applications and 1134 ordinary applications (Table B.3).

The Master dealt with a total of 3,040 bankruptcy proceedings. The main area of work disposed of by the Master was bankruptcy petitions, a total of 2,020 (Table B.4).

Section 3: Companies

Table B.5 and B.6 show the companies’ proceedings entered and disposed of for 2008. There were 519 companies’ proceedings received and 380 disposed of.

Table B.7 shows the time interval in weeks for cases and applications in the Chancery Division for the three business areas. A chancery case takes on average 30 weeks from date of issue to date of disposal compared to 12 weeks for a bankruptcy case and 11 weeks for a companies case.

Section 4: Queen’s Bench Division

There were 10,110 Queen’s Bench cases and applications received during 2008, 59% of these were made up of writs and originating summonses. There has been a 17% increase in the number of writs received from 5,088 in 2007 to 5,956 in 2008 (Table B.8).

Table B.9 shows the breakdown of the amount claimed in writs and originating summonses in 2008.

There were 1,255 Queen’s Bench writs (excluding commercial actions) set down for trial during 2008 (Table B.10).

There were 1,760 writs dealt with in court and 4,895 writs disposed of as office disposals. Actions set down as negligence constituted 49% of writs disposed of (Table B.11).

Of the 2,502 writs disposed of, 40% were for over £15,000 (Table B.12).

Tables B.13 and B.14 show the number of commercial actions set down and disposed of. During 2008, 71 actions were entered in the commercial list. In total, 127 cases were disposed of with 113 of these disposed of by a High Court Judge.

In 2008, the average length of time for a writ from first listing to disposal was 27 weeks (Table B.15).

Section 5: Judicial Reviews

Tables B.16 to B.18 are in relation to Judicial Reviews. There were 89 applications for leave to apply for Judicial Review granted (37%). Of the 117 applications for Judicial Review that were disposed in 2008, 18% were granted.

In 2008, the average length of time from issue to disposal of applications for Judicial Review was 44 weeks (Table B.18).

Section 6: Probate

The number of grants of probate issued during 2008 increased by 8% from 6,019 in 2007 to 6,484 in 2008 (Table B.19).

Section 7: Matrimonial

The number of divorce petitions filed increased by 1%, from 3,017 in 2007 to 3,055 in 2008 (Table B.20).

There were 1,186 decrees nisi granted in the High Court during 2008, an increase of 5% on the 1,134 granted during 2007. The most common ground for dissolution continued to be separation (2 years with consent) accounting for 35% of all cases (Table B.21).

During 2008, there were 1,388 matrimonial applications received. In total, 45% of applications were for ancillary relief (Table B.23).

Of the 1,038 matrimonial applications disposed of during 2008, 458 (44%) were for ancillary relief (Table B.24).

The average time from the issue of a petition to the date the decree was granted was 46 weeks (Table B.25).

During 2008, the average time from issue to disposal of a matrimonial application was 10 weeks. Applications for ancillary relief took on average 42 weeks from date of issue to date of disposal (Table B.26).

Section 8: Wardship and Adoption

During 2008, adoption order applications accounted for 56% of the total applications received (Table B.27).

Of the cases disposed, 94% were disposed of by a High Court Judge. The majority of applications disposed of (59%) were adoption order applications (Table B.28).

Ex-parte applications for occupation/non-molestation orders accounted for 40% of the total number of Family Homes and Domestic Violence cases and applications received (Table B.29).

The Master disposed of 98% of the total number of Family Homes and Domestic Violence cases and applications during 2008. Table B.30 shows that 47% of these cases were ex-parte.

Table B.31 shows the average time in weeks for adoption and Family Homes and Domestic Violence cases and applications during 2008. It took on average 32 weeks for an adoption case from date of issue to date of disposal.

Section 9: Care & Protection

There were 907 patients referred to the Office of Care and Protection in 2008 for investigation under the Mental Health Order, representing a 14% increase on the 2007 total of 795 patients. The total live caseload for 2008 was 1,448 (Table B.32).

Section 10: Official Solicitor’s Office

Tables B.33 and B.34 demonstrate the caseload of the Official Solicitor’s Office. There were 428 live patient cases and 283 live minors’ cases in 2008.

Section 11: Masters’ appeals

There were 53 Masters’ appeals received and 59 Masters’ appeals disposed of in 2008 (Tables B.35 and B.36).

Section 12: High Court Bails

There were 1,930 applications for bail in the High Court during 2008. Of the 1,356 applications disposed in court, 46% were granted (Tables B.37 and B.39).

Section 13: Court sitting days and court sitting times

High Court Judges sat on a total of 2,557 court sitting days, a decrease of 0.1% on the 2,559 days sat during 2007. By majority type of work, High Court Judges sat for a total 628 days hearing Queen’s Bench business and 625 in the Crown Court (Table B.40).

Part C: Crown Court

The Crown Court deals with all cases committed for trial by magistrates’ courts, cases for trial are usually heard before a judge and jury.

Key facts during 2008

1,288 Crown Court cases were received
1,371 Crown Court cases were disposed of
There were a total of 1,733 defendants disposed of
The average time from committal to start of trial was 134 days (19 weeks)

Section 1: Cases received and disposed of

Tables C.1 show the number of cases received in 2008. There were 1,288 cases received in 2008 compared to 1,436 in 2007, a decrease of 10%. In 2008, there were 1,371 cases disposed of, a 4% decrease from the 1,431 in 2007 as shown in Table C.2.

There were a total of 1,733 defendants disposed of during 2008. This is a decrease of 5% compared to the 1,818 defendants disposed of in 2007. (Table C.4)

Section 2: Crown Court waiting times

The average waiting time between committal to start of trial was 134 days (Table C.5).

Section 3: Defendants disposed of

The majority of defendants were disposed of by a County Court Judge (93%). (Table C.6)

In total, 44% of defendants made a plea of guilty on all charges and 14% were acquitted on all charges. (Table C.8).

Section 4: Crown Court sittings and times

There were 2,684 sittings in the Crown Court in 2008. The total time spent on Crown Court business has decreased by 1% from 2007.

Part D: County Court

The county court deals with civil matters including all monetary claims up to £15,000. In Northern Ireland there are seven County Court Divisions, however the court may sit in more than one venue within the Division.

Key facts during 2008

2,800 appeals were disposed of 80 criminal damage cases were received
6,740 ordinary civil bills had Notice of Intention to Defend
9,956 ordinary civil bills were disposed of
13,409 small claims were received
10,649 small claims were disposed of
1,651 decrees nisi were granted

Section 1: Appeals from magistrates’ courts

There were a total of 2,610 appeals received during 2008 (Table D.1) and 2,800 appeals were disposed of in the county court during 2008 (Table D.2). County Court Appeals were recorded on ICOS from 2007 and caution should be taken when comparing with previous years.

Tables D.3 to D.5 show the result of appeals against conviction and sentence, sentence only and civil appeals. The vast majority of appeals (98%) dealt with in court were criminal cases, and 2% were civil cases. Of the criminal appeals, 68% were against sentence only and 32% were against conviction and sentence.

Section 2: Criminal damage cases

There were 80 criminal damage cases received during 2008. Belfast accounted for 63% of all cases received. Table D.7 shows that there were 19 criminal damage cases disposed of in 2008.

Section 3: Licences

There were 375 licence applications received in the county court in 2008 and 325 licence applications disposed of.

Section 4: Ordinary civil bills

There were 13,603 ordinary civil bills received in 2008. There were also 5,167 applications received during the same period. Belfast received 65% of ordinary civil bills compared to 5% in Armagh and South Down.

The number of ordinary civil bills where Notices of Intention to Defend were received rose from 6,583 in 2007 to 6,740 in 2008, representing a 2% increase in business (Table D.11).

The number of cases disposed of increased by 1%, from 9,816 cases in 2007 compared to 9,956 in 2008. Of the ordinary civil bills disposed of, 27% were default judgements. A further 21% were disposed of at district judge level compared to 30% disposed of at county court judge level.

Table D.13 shows the amount awarded for ordinary civil bills during 2008. Just over a quarter of civil bills (26%) were awarded between £1000-2999.

On average, it took 46 weeks from date of issue to date of disposal for civil bills to progress through the county court (Table D.14).

Section 5: Equity

There were 314 equity cases and 150 equity applications received during 2008.

Table D.17 shows that there were 248 equity cases disposed of in 2008. The majority of equity cases were disposed of in court (84%).

Table D.18 shows the time intervals for equity cases and applications from date of issue to date of disposal for each county court division. On average, for cases disposed of during 2008, it took 56 weeks for an equity case to progress through the county courts.

Section 6: Ejectment

In total, there were 1,052 ejectment cases received during 2008, with 48% received in Belfast (Table D.19).

During the year, 798 ejectment cases were disposed of in the county court. The majority of ejectment cases were disposed of in court (96%).

Table D.21 shows the average time in weeks for ejectment cases to progress through the courts during 2008. On average, it took 16 weeks for a case from date of issue to date of disposal.

Section 7: Small claims

Table D.22 shows that the number of small claims received increased from 12,938 cases in 2007 to cases 13,409 in 2008. There were 272 applications received in small claims during the year.

In total, 10,649 small claims cases were disposed of in 2008. This is a decrease of 2% on the 10,866 cases disposed of during 2007 (Table D.24).

Table D.25 shows that during 2008, it took on average 19 weeks for a small claims case to progress from date of issue to date of disposal.

Section 8: Divorce cases

There were 1,651 decrees nisi granted in undefended divorce cases in the county court in 2008 (Table D.26). The number of decrees nisi granted has decreased by 11% from 1,851 in 2007.

Tables D.28 and D.29 show the number of matrimonial applications received and disposed of during 2008.

County court divorce petitions took on average 29 weeks from date of issue to date decree nisi granted. Matrimonial applications took on average 39 weeks to progress through the county courts during 2008.

Section 9: Court sitting days and court sitting times

Table D.32 shows that there were 3,980 court sitting days in 2008.

Part E: Magistrates’ Courts

The magistrates’ court hears and determines less serious criminal cases, cases involving youth and some civil and domestic cases including family proceedings.

Key facts during 2008

51,385 adult criminal defendants were disposed of
3,091 youth criminal defendants were disposed of
5,604 civil applications were disposed of
The average waiting time between 1st hearing and disposal for adult criminal cases was 7 weeks
The average waiting time between 1st hearing and finding for youth criminal cases was 11 weeks

Section 1: Business volumes received in the magistrates’ court

In 2008, there were 51,910 adult defendants received. In the youth court, there were 2,851 defendants received (Table E.1).

Section 2: Adult criminal business disposed of

There were 51,385 defendants disposed of in 2008. Belfast accounted for 29% of the business, in contrast Craigavon division disposed of 10% of adult defendants (Table E.2).

Table E.3 shows the types of charges disposed of in 2008. In total, there were 106,526 charges disposed of.

Table E.4 shows the outcomes of defendants disposed of in 2008. 37% of defendants pleaded guilty on all charges.

Table E.5 shows there were 136,078 final orders granted in the magistrates’ adult court in 2008.

The average waiting time in Northern Ireland for defendants disposed of in 2008 between the date of summons and the date of first hearing was 8 weeks. The waiting time between the date of first hearing and disposal averaged 7 weeks (Table E.6).

Section 3: Youth criminal business disposed of

In 2008, there were 3,091 youth defendants disposed of with 28% in Belfast and 8% in Armagh and South Down (Table E.7).

Table E.8 shows the types of charges disposed of in 2008 for youth defendants. In total, there were 6,806 charges disposed of in 2008.

Table E.10 shows there were 8,093 final orders granted in the magistrates’ youth court in 2008.

The average waiting time in Northern Ireland for youth defendants between the dates of summons to the date of first hearing in 2008 was 7 weeks. The average waiting time between the date of first hearing and finding was 11 weeks. The average waiting time from date of first hearing to date of disposal was 15 weeks. (Table E.11)

Section 4: Civil & Family business disposed of

There were 5,604 applications disposed of during 2008. (Table E.12).

The average waiting time for Northern Ireland in the civil and family magistrates’ court for the date of issue to first hearing was 2 weeks. The average waiting time from the date of first hearing to disposal was 6 weeks. (Table E.13).

Section 5: Court sittings and court sitting times

Tables E.15 and E.16 show the number of scheduled, additional and special court sittings and court sitting times in the magistrates’ court in 2008. There were 4,761 scheduled and additional court sittings in the magistrates’ court and the average court sitting time was 3hrs 29mins. The average court sitting time for special courts was 48 minutes.

Part F: Children Order

Children Order business is conducted before the family proceedings courts, the family care centres and the High Court.

Key facts during 2008

3,997 total applications were lodged
3,639 total applications were disposed of
4,791 children were involved
9,629 orders were made
1,691 Children Order court sitting days with an average time of 2hrs 13mins

Section 1: Applications entered and disposed of

Tables F.1 and F.2 show that a total of 3,997 applications were received in designated courts in 2008. The majority of business (91%) was lodged in family proceedings courts, with 4% lodged in the High Court and 4% lodged in family care centres. Of the 3,639 applications disposed of, the High Court accounted for 5% of all business dealt with, care centres for 11% and family proceedings / magistrates court for 84%.

Section 2: Reasons for transfer

Complexity accounted for 33% of the reasons quoted for the transfer of cases between courts (Table F.3).

Section 3: Own motion orders and interim orders

Care orders accounted for 25% of own motion orders followed by contact permission orders (21%) in 2008 (Table F.4).

Section 4: Final orders made

Table F.6 show the number of final orders made in 2008.

Section 5: Age and gender of children

There were a total of 4,791 children involved in Children Order cases during 2008. In total, 35% of these were aged 0-4 and 29% aged 5-8 (Table F.7).

Section 6: Average time in weeks from lodgement to disposal by venue

The average disposal times for private law cases in 2008 was 36 weeks in the High Court, 39 weeks in the family care centres and 24 weeks in the family proceedings courts. Disposal times of cases in the High Court and the family care centres may include the time spent at the lower courts if cases were transferred (Table F.8).

Section 7: Court sittings and court sitting times

Table F.9 shows the number of sittings where any Children Order business was heard in court. During 2008, the family proceedings courts sat for over 2,415 hours, 64% of the total court sitting time for Children Order.

Part G Miscellaneous

This section covers the caseload from Enforcement of Judgments Office (EJO), Social Security Commissioners and Child Support Commissioners and Coroners’ Court.

Key facts during 2008

12,066 notices of intention to enforce were lodged
5,352 applications for enforcement were accepted
167 applications for leave to appeal to the Commissioners were lodged and 162 were cleared
66 appeals to the Commissioners were lodged and 48 were cleared
208 inquests were held

Section 1: Enforcement of Judgments Office

Since the early 1970s, the task of enforcing civil judgments in Northern Ireland has been simplified by the creation of the Enforcement of Judgments Office (EJO), which operates under the supervision of the Master (Enforcement of Judgments), assisted by the Chief Enforcement Officer. In 2008, 12,066 notices of intention to enforce were lodged and 5,352 applications for enforcement were accepted (Table G.1).

Table G.2 shows the ‘Debt Ratio’ which is the amount of debt recovered for every £1 paid in enforcement fees.

A possession file is deemed ‘completed’ when –

An eviction takes place.
The creditor withdraws their application.
An official arrangement between the creditor and debtor is made (these cases may be re-activated if the arrangement breaks down)

Table G.3 shows that during the year, 704 cases were completed.

Section 2: Social Security Commissioners and Child Support Commissioners and Pension Appeals Tribunals

There were 167 applications for leave to appeal to the Social Security Commissioners lodged during 2008, 22 less than the 189 lodged during 2007. There were 162 applications for leave cleared in 2008 compared to 197 cleared during 2007 (Table G.4).

The number of appeals to the Commissioners lodged increased by 6% from 62 in 2007 to 66 in 2008. In total, 48 were cleared in 2008 compared with 64 in 2007 (Table G.5).

Table G.6 shows the number of applications to the Commissioners for leave to appeal to the Court of Appeal in 2008.

Tables G.7 to G.12 show the caseload of Pensions Appeal Tribunals in 2008. 79 entitlement appeals and 109 assessment appeals were dealt with in 2008. The majority of assessment appeals (69%) were dealt with after a hearing.

Section 3: Coroners’ office

Table G.13 shows the Coroners’ caseload for 2008.