High Court Bulletin

High Court figures on Children’s Order cases, Crown Court cases, bail applications and appeals appear in other bulletins.
In the tables relating to time intervals, the total time from issue to disposal may not equal that of the individual time periods due to some dates not being applicable.
Figures are run from an administrative database and may change due to late returns and further validations.

Summary

Chancery
There were 1,840 cases received into the Chancery division. In total, 57% were chancery cases, 35% were bankruptcy cases and 8% were companies’ cases. There were 1,399 cases disposed of during the reporting period.
Queen’s Bench
There were 1,435 writs received in Queen’s Bench. Of those, 46% were negligence cases. There were 221 default judgments, 1,321 office disposals and 638 court disposals for writs during the quarter. There were 187 removals and remittals applications dealt with.
Judicial Reviews
There were 75 applications for leave to apply for Judicial Review and 32 applications for Judicial Review received during the quarter. Of the 36 applications for Judicial Review disposed of during the quarter, 5 were granted.
Probate
There were 1,741 grants issued during the quarter in the probate office.
Wardship and Adoption
There were 30 adoption applications received and 41 adoption applications disposed of during the quarter. It took, on average, 30 weeks for an adoption application to progress through the courts.
Matrimonial
There were 853 divorce petitions lodged in the High Court. Of these, 555 petitions were lodged by the wife. In total, 398 decrees nisi and 287 absolutes were issued.
Patients
There were 283 new referrals in the Patients section.
Official Solicitors
There were 746 certificates drafted in the Official Solicitors office.
Sitting days and times
There were 808 sitting days in the High Court during the quarter.

Figure 1: Number of writs received by type of writ

Figure 2: Number of sitting days by business type

Chancery

Table 1: Chancery cases and applications received

Case	Mortgages	929
	Other land and property	37
	Trade and other business	6
	Trusts	3
	Other	81
	Total	1056
Application	Notice of appointment	759
	Summons	206
	Notice of motion	16
	Exparte application	53
	Other	1
	Injunction	10
	Total	1045

Table 2: Chancery cases setdown

Case	Other land and property	14
	Trade and other business	5
	Trusts	1
	Other	14
	Total	34

Table 3: Chancery cases and applications disposed

		High court judge	Master	Office disposal	Total
Case	Mortgages		565		565
	Other land and property	20	2	1	23
	Trade and other business	7			7
	Trusts	5			5
	Other	44	7	7	58
	Total	76	574	8	658
Application	Notice of appointment	2	26		28
	Summons	20	124		144
	Notice of motion	2	2		4
	Exparte application	5	36		41
	Other	1			1
	Injunction	2			2
	Total	32	188		220

Table 4: Bankruptcy cases and applications received

Case	Petition by another person	448
	Petition by debtor	98
	Other petition	19
	Originating application	60
	Other	17
	Total	642
Application	Notice of motion	4
	Ordinary application	309
	Certificate of automatic discharge	27
	Other	8
	Total	348

Table 5: Bankruptcy cases and applications disposed

		High court judge	Master	Office disposal	Total
Case	Petition by another person	2	476		478
	Petition by debtor		116		116
	Other petition		8		8
	Originating application		19		19
	Other		14		14
	Total	2	633		635
Application	Notice of motion		3		3
	Ordinary application		242	2	244
	Certificate of automatic discharge		24		24
	Other		4		4
	Total		273	2	275

Table 6: Companies cases and applications received

Case	Winding up petition	86
	Other petitions	9
	Originating summons	43
	Other	4
	Total	142
Application	Notice of motion	1
	Ordinary application	5
	Other	1
	Total	7

Table 7: Companies cases and applications disposed

		High court judge	Master	Total
Case	Winding up petition	1	87	88
	Other petitions		5	5
	Originating summons	1	9	10
	Other	2	1	3
	Total	4	102	106
Application	Ordinary application	1	1	2
Application	Total	1	1	2

Table 8: Time intervals in weeks

	Chancery		Bankruptcy		Companies
	Case	Application	Case	Application	Case	Application
Issue to first listing	19	3	5	2	6	5
First listing to disposal	7	6	3	1	3	42
Issue to disposal	27	8	10	3	10	47

Due to rounding, individual time intervals may not equal the overall time taken to progress through the courts

Queen’s Bench

Table 9: Queen's Bench cases and applications received

Writs and originating summons	Negligence	658
	Breach	32
	Road injuries	303
	Personal injuries	107
	Monies due	243
	Other	92
	Total	1435
Miscellaneous	Foreign judgement	96
	Other	55
	Total	151
Applications	Summons/interlocutory application	657
	Remittals and removals	135
	Exparte applications	111
	Other	175
	Total	1078

Table 10: Queen's Bench writs and originating summons received by amount claimed

	Unliquated	less than £1,000	£1,000-2,999	£3,000-14,999	Over £15,000	Total
Negligence	658					658
Breach	32					32
Road injuries	301		1		1	303
Personal injuries	107					107
Monies due	63	1	7	57	115	243
Other	67		2	7	16	92
Total	1228	1	10	64	132	1435

Table 11: Queen's Bench writs and originating summons setdown by amount claimed

	Unliquated	£3,000-14,999	Over £15,000	Total
Negligence	60			60
Breach	3			3
Road injuries	23	1		24
Personal injuries	7	1	2	10
Monies due	1		2	3
Other	5		1	6
Total	99	2	5	106

Table 12: Queen's cases and applications disposed

		High court judge	Master	Office disposal	Default judgement	Total
Writs and originating summons	Negligence	343	5	863	9	1220
	Breach	9	1	5	3	18
	Road injuries	169	3	146	4	322
	Personal injuries	81	1	284	1	367
	Monies due	3	1	13	129	146
	Other	22		10	75	107
	Total	627	11	1321	221	2180
Miscellaneous	Other	2	3	8		13
Miscellaneous	Total	2	3	8		13
Applications	Summons/interlocutory application	32	697			729
	Remittals and removals	5	182			187
	Exparte applications	14	63			77
	Other	59	101			160
	Total	110	1043			1153

Table 13: Queen's writs and originating summons disposed by amount

		Unliquated	£1,000-2,999	£3,000-14,999	Over £15,000	Total
High court judge	Negligence	168	6	60	109	343
	Breach	3			6	9
	Road injuries	24		21	124	169
	Personal injuries	51	1	8	21	81
	Monies due	1			2	3
	Other	11	1		10	22
Master	Negligence	5				5
	Breach	1				1
	Road injuries	3				3
	Personal injuries	1				1
	Monies due	1				1
Default judgement	Negligence	9				9
	Breach	2			1	3
	Road injuries	4				4
	Personal injuries	1				1
	Monies due	7	8	51	63	129
	Other	4	3	23	45	75
Total		296	19	163	381	859

Excludes commercial actions

Table 14: Queen's Bench commercial actions setdown

Negligence	3
Breach	2
Monies due	7
Other	2
Total	14

Table 15: Queen's Bench commercial actions disposed

	High court judge	Office disposal	Total
Negligence	7	4	11
Breach	12	2	19
Road Injuries	1		1
Monies due	19	1	20
Other	3		3
Total	47	7	54

Table 16: Time intervals in weeks

	Writs and originating summons	Commercial actions	Miscellaneous	Applications
Issue to setdown	95	93
Issue to first listing	110	89	6	2
First listing to disposal	32	37	0	5
Issue to disposal	141	124	4	7

Excludes default judgements and office disposals
Due to rounding and not all writs and originating summons having a set-down date, individual time
intervals may not equal the overall time taken to progress through the courts

Judicial Reviews

Table 17: Judicial Reviews applications received

Application for leave to apply for judicial review	75
Application for judicial review	32
Ancilliary applications	4

Table 18: Judicial Reviews applications disposed

	Granted	Withdrawn/Refused/Dismissed	Other	Total
Application for leave to apply for judicial review	27	26	10	63
Application for judicial review	5	21	10	36
Ancilliary applications			3	3

Table 19: Time intervals in weeks

	Application for leave to apply for judicial review	Application for judicial review	Ancilliary applications
Issue to first listing	2	5	2
First listing to disposal	7	27	0
Issue to disposal	8	32	2

Due to rounding, individual time intervals may not equal the overall time taken to progress through the courts

Probate

Table 20: Probate grants issued in non-contentious proceedings

	District registry		Probate
	By solicitor	Personal	By solicitor	Northern Ireland
Letters of adminstration with will annexed	9		39	48
Letters of adminstration Letters of adminstration			6	6
Letters of adminstration	96		300	396
Grant of probate	243		1034	1277
Letters of adminstration (DBN)	4	1	9	14
Total grants issued	352	1	1388	1741

Wardship and Adoption

Table 21: Adoption cases and applications received

Adoption Order application	14
Child Abduction originating summons	2
Freeing Order Application	2
Interlocutory Application	9
Wardship Originating summons	3
Total	30

Table 22: Adoption cases and applications disposed

	High court judge	Master	Total
Adoption Order application	25		25
Child Abduction originating summons	3		3
Freeing Order Application	3		3
Interlocutory Application	7		7
Wardship Originating summons		3	3
Total	38	3	41

Table 23: Family homes and domestic violence cases and applications received

App for occup/Non mol	7
Exparte Appl for Occup/Non Mol	4
App to Extend/Discharge/Vary Occup/Non Mol	1
Total	12

Table 24: Family homes and domestic violence cases and applications disposed

	Master	Total
App for occup/Non mol	7	7
Exparte Appl for Occup/Non Mol	7	7
Article 23 ex-parte non-molestation and occupation	1	1
Total	15	15

Table 25: Time intervals in weeks

	Adoption	Family homes and domestic violence
Issue to first listing	17	0
First listing to disposal	13	12
Issue to disposal	30	11

Due to rounding, individual time intervals may not equal the overall time taken to progress through the courts

Matrimonial

Table 26: Divorce petitions received

		Filed by
		Wife	Husband	Total
Divorce Petition	2 years with consent	227	143	370
	2 years with consent	121	116	237
	Adultery	18	6	24
	Unreasonable behaviour	141	23	164
	Combination of grounds/other	48	10	58
Total		555	298	853

Table 27: Divorce petitions by type of decree nisi

		Found by
		Wife	Husband	Both	Total
Decree nisi	2 years with consent	95	49		144
	5 years separation	57	39		96
	Adultery	4	3		7
	Unreasonable behaviour	66	7	3	76
	Combination of grounds/other	53	10	6	69
Nullity	Combination of grounds/other	2			2
Judicial separation	2 years with consent	1			1
	Unreasonable behaviour	1			1
	Combination of grounds/other	2			2
Total		281	108	9	398

Table 28: Divorce petitions by number of absolutes issued

		Found by
		Wife	Husband	Both	Total
Divorce Petition	2 years with consent	68	30		98
	5 years separation	44	22		66
	Adultery	8	2		10
	Unreasonable behaviour	45	10		55
	Combination of grounds/other	38	18	2	58
Total		203	82	2	287

Table 29: Matrimonial applications received

Application	Combination of grounds/other	5
	Ancillary relief	193
	Matrimonial application	194
	Other	8
Total		400

Table 30: Matrimonial applications disposed

		Judge	Master	Total
Application	Combination of grounds/other	3		3
	Ancillary relief	5	162	167
	Matrimonial application	12	164	176
	Other	4	1	5
Total		24	327	351

Table 31: Time intervals in weeks for divorce petitions

	Divorce Petition
Issue to first listing	39
First listing to date decree granted	5
Issue to date decree granted	47
Date decree granted to date absolute issued	8

Due to rounding, individual time intervals may not equal the overall time taken to progress through the courts

Table 32: Time intervals in weeks for divorce applications

	Combination of grounds/other	Ancillary relief	Matrimonial application	Other
Issue to first listing	3	7	6	4
First listing to disposal	8	38	4	6
Issue to disposal	11	45	10	10

Due to rounding, individual time intervals may not equal the overall time taken to progress through the courts

Bails

Table 33: Number of bail applications received

Bail application	285
Bail pending appear to county court	4
Compassionate bail application	29
Application to revoke bail	3
Schedule 2 breach	1
TIM	1
Bail variation	130
Total	453

Table 34: Number of bail applications disposed in chambers

Bail application	3
Compassionate bail application	1
Bail variation	78
Total	82

Table 35: Number of bail applications disposed of in court

	Granted	Refused	Revoke	Other	Total
Bail application	97	127	1	15	240
Bail pending appear to county court	3	1			4
Compassionate bail application	15	7		3	25
Application to revoke bail		1	2		3
Schedule 2 breach	1				1
Bail variation	22	4		1	27
Total	138	140	3	19	300

Patients

Table 36: Patients workload figures

New referrals	283
EPA applications received	86
Orders issued	217
Certificates issues	1467
Reviews completed	151
Visits	6

Official Solicitors

Table 37: Official Solicitors statistics

Correspondence received	2439
New referrals	10
Cases OS assisting OCP	7
OS appointed controller ad interim	3
Certificates drafted	746
OS appointed full controller	7

Sitting days and times

Table 38: High Court sitting days

Children order	22
Other family	57
Appeals	3
Queen's bench	221
Chancery	62
Bails	73
Crown	210
Judicial reviews	111
Criminal appeals	20
Civil appeals	29
Total	808

Table 39: High Court sitting times

Children order	72:25:00
Other family	96:25:50
Appeals	5:10:00
Queen's bench	445:07:00
Chancery	133:47:00
Bails	124:14:00
Callover	0:00:00
Crown	508:25:48
Judicial reviews	219:52:00
Criminal appeals	36:25:00
Civil appeals	71:49:00
Total	1713:40:38