County Court Bulletin October - December 2009 (Provisional Figures)

Table 1: Number of ordinary civil bill cases and applications received
Table 2: Number of ordinary civil bill cases with NIDs received by judicial level
Table 3: Number of ordinary civil bills cases and applications disposed
Table 4: Number of ordinary civil bills cases by amount awarded
Table 5: Outstanding civil bills with NID but no COR
Table 6: Outstanding civil bills with COR
Table 7: Time intervals in weeks for civil bill cases
Table 8: Time intervals in weeks for civil bill applications
Table 9: Equity cases and applications received
Table 10: Equity cases and applications disposed
Table 11: Outstanding equity cases
Table 12: Time intervals in weeks for equity
Table 13: Ejectment cases received
Table 14: Ejectment cases disposed
Table 15: Outstanding ejectment cases with NID
Table 16: Time intervals in weeks for ejectment
Table 17: Number of small claims cases and applications received
Table 18: Number of small claims cases with NODs received
Table 19: Number of small claims cases and applications disposed
Table 20: Outstanding small claims with NOD
Table 21: Time intervals in weeks for small claims
Table 22: Number of criminal damage cases and applications received
Table 23: Number of criminal damage cases and applications disposed
Table 24: Outstanding criminal damage cases
Table 25: Time interval in weeks for criminal damage
Table 26: Divorce petitions by type of decrees Nisi
Table 27: Divorce petitions by number of absolutes issued
Table 28: Matrimonial applications received
Table 29: Matrimonial applications disposed
Table 30: Time intervals in weeks for divorce petitions
Table 31: Time intervals in weeks for divorce applications
Table 32: Licences received and disposed
Table 33: County Court Judge & District Judge sitting days

County court figures on Children Order cases, magistrates’ appeals and county court appeals appear in other bulletins.

Figures are run from an administrative database and may change due to late returns and further validations.

Summary

There were 1,986 civil bills with a notice of intention to defend (NID) received during the quarter of October to December 2009. A total of 3,155 civil bills were disposed of during the quarter, of which 1,664 civil bills were disposed of in court.
During the same period there were 44 equity cases received and 46 cases dealt with.
There were 203 ejectment cases received and 168 ejectment cases disposed of during the reporting period.
There were 3,102 small claims received and 2,777 disposed of during the period, of which 534 were disposed of in court and 1,506 were default judgments.
In total, 388 decrees nisi were granted during the quarter, with 50% of these giving a reason of ‘2 years with consent’. There were 306 decrees absolute granted in the county court.
There were 1,111 sitting days during the quarter, with 52% of time having been spent on criminal business.

Number of Civil Bills with NID's received and dealt with (excluding the Civil Processing Centre)

	Belfast	Londonderry	Antrim	Fermanagh & Tyrone	Armagh &S Down	Ards	Craigavon
Received	725	180	190	163	114	272	208
Disposed	477	146	150	161	103	214	107

Civil Bills

Table 1: Number of ordinary civil bill cases and applications received

Case	Antrim	207
	Ards	270
	Armagh and South Down	149
	Belfast	2500
	Craigavon	195
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	174
	Londonderry	134
	Total	3629
Application	Antrim	103
	Ards	147
	Armagh and South Down	96
	Belfast	650
	Craigavon	108
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	78
	Londonderry	141
	Total	1323

Table 2: Number of ordinary civil bill cases with notice of intention to defend (NIDs) received by judicial level

	County court judge	District judge	Total
Antrim	149	79	228
Ards	177	89	266
Armagh and South Down	112	60	172
Belfast	525	233	758
Craigavon	122	88	210
Fermanagh and Tyrone	114	73	187
Londonderry	91	74	165
Total	1290	696	1986

Table 3: Number of ordinary civil bills cases and applications disposed

		Court result - CCJ	Court result - DDJ	Non court disposals	Default judgement	Office disposal	Total
Case	Antrim	154	84	63	3	24	328
	Ards	104	66	51	2	38	261
	Armagh and South Down	97	39	37	1	29	203
	Belfast	397	213	153	14	99	876
	Civil Processing Centre	0	0	31	698	29	758
	Craigavon	93	68	47	5	31	244
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	91	84	35	2	22	234
	Londonderry	130	44	49	0	28	251
	Total	1066	598	466	725	300	3155
Application	Antrim	37	19	28	0	0	84
	Ards	20	12	39	0	0	71
	Armagh and South Down	31	15	17	0	0	63
	Belfast	96	28	115	0	0	239
	Civil Processing Centre	0	0	1	0	0	1
	Craigavon	16	7	27	0	0	50
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	22	19	25	0	0	66
	Londonderry	45	21	21	0	0	87
	Total	267	121	273	0	0	661

Table 4: Number of ordinary civil bills cases by amount awarded

		No value	Less than £1000	£1000-2999	£3000-4999	Over £5000	Total
Case	Antrim	62	16	58	51	51	238
	Ards	15	18	70	43	24	170
	Armagh and South Down	42	8	30	21	35	136
	Belfast	171	66	147	131	95	610
	Craigavon	40	24	27	32	38	161
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	44	24	35	34	38	175
	Londonderry	45	15	40	29	45	174
	Total	419	171	407	341	326	1664

Excludes cases that were adjourned generally, default judgements or had office disposals

Table 5: Outstanding civil bills with notice of intention to defend (NID) but no certificate of readiness (COR)

	County court judge	District judge	Total
Antrim	272	116	388
Ards	282	127	409
Armagh and South Down	261	113	374
Belfast	1062	377	1439
Craigavon	311	137	448
Fermanagh and Tyrone	288	135	423
Londonderry	195	155	350
Total	2671	1160	3831

Table 6: Outstanding civil bills with certificate of readiness (COR)

	County court judge	District judge	Total
Antrim	109	46	155
Ards	152	64	216
Armagh and South Down	94	41	135
Belfast	311	142	453
Craigavon	108	59	167
Fermanagh and Tyrone	80	63	143
Londonderry	45	45	90
Total	899	460	1359

Table 7: Time intervals in weeks for civil bill cases

		Issue to disposal
Case	Antrim	41
	Ards	32
	Armagh and South Down	47
	Belfast	42
	Craigavon	44
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	43
	Londonderry	49
	Average	42

Excludes default judgements and office disposals

Table 8: Time intervals in weeks for civil bill applications

		Issue to disposal
Application	Antrim	5
	Ards	3
	Armagh and South Down	8
	Belfast	6
	Craigavon	8
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	6
	Londonderry	5
	Average	6

Excludes default judgements and office disposals

Equity

Table 9: Equity cases and applications received

Case	Antrim	4
	Ards	4
	Armagh and South Down	3
	Belfast	22
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	8
	Londonderry	3
	Total	44
Application	Antrim	1
	Ards	2
	Armagh and South Down	5
	Belfast	7
	Craigavon	2
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	5
	Londonderry	4
	Total	26

Table 10: Equity cases and applications disposed

		Court result	Non court disposals	Total
Case	Antrim	4	1	5
	Ards	2	0	2
	Armagh and South Down	6	0	8
	Belfast	5	2	7
	Craigavon	6	0	6
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	7	0	7
	Londonderry	10	1	11
	Total	42	4	46
Application	Antrim	0	1	1
	Ards	3	0	3
	Armagh and South Down	8	2	10
	Belfast	4	1	5
	Craigavon	1	0	1
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	4	0	4
	Londonderry	4	0	4
	Total	24	4	28

Table 11: Outstanding equity cases

Case	Antrim	46
	Ards	59
	Armagh and South Down	44
	Belfast	106
	Craigavon	24
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	47
	Londonderry	27
Total		353

Table 12: Time intervals in weeks

		Issue to disposal
Case	Antrim	51
	Ards	85
	Armagh and South Down	51
	Belfast	45
	Craigavon	53
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	24
	Londonderry	41
	Average	45
Application	Antrim	0
	Ards	5
	Armagh and South Down	13
	Belfast	16
	Craigavon	1
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	0
	Londonderry	5
	Average	8

Ejectment

Table 13: Ejectment cases received

Case	Antrim	12
	Ards	49
	Armagh and South Down	3
	Belfast	99
	Craigavon	26
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	10
	Londonderry	4
	Total	203

Table 14: Ejectment cases disposed

		Court result	Non court disposals	Total
Case	Antrim	12	0	12
	Ards	36	4	40
	Armagh and South Down	3	0	3
	Belfast	63	1	64
	Craigavon	24	0	24
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	21	1	22
	Londonderry	2	1	3
	Total	161	7	168

Table 15: Outstanding ejectment cases with notice of intention to defend (NID)

Case	Antrim	5
	Ards	11
	Armagh and South Down	9
	Belfast	20
	Craigavon	4
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	3
	Londonderry	5
Total		57

Table 16: Time intervals in weeks

		Issue to disposal
Case	Antrim	23
	Ards	18
	Armagh and South Down	9
	Belfast	11
	Craigavon	18
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	21
	Londonderry	22
	Average	16

Excludes default judgements, non-court disposals and office disposals

Small Claims

Table 17: Number of small claims cases and applications received

Case	Antrim	65
	Ards	78
	Armagh and South Down	57
	Belfast	2775
	Craigavon	41
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	47
	Londonderry	39
	Total	3102
Application	Antrim	4
	Ards	8
	Armagh and South Down	4
	Belfast	45
	Craigavon	5
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	10
	Londonderry	11
	Total	87

Table 18: Number of small claims cases with notice of dispute (NODs) received

Case	Antrim	54
	Ards	65
	Armagh and South Down	53
	Belfast	168
	Craigavon	37
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	46
	Londonderry	41
Total		464

Table 19: Number of small claims cases and applications disposed

		Court disposal	Non court disposal	Office disposal	Default judgement	Total
Case	Antrim	68	14	4	3	89
	Ards	95	3	14	1	113
	Armagh and South Down	59	3	5	1	68
	Belfast	168	3	664	1494	2329
	Craigavon	53	0	11	5	69
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	47	1	6	1	55
	Londonderry	44	1	8	1	54
	Total	534	25	712	1506	2777
Application	Antrim	1	0	0	0	1
	Ards	9	1	0	0	10
	Armagh and South Down	5	1	0	0	6
	Belfast	32	1	0	0	33
	Craigavon	5	0	0	0	5
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	3	1	0	0	4
	Londonderry	5	2	0	0	7
	Total	60	6	0	0	66

Table 20: Outstanding small claims with notice of dispute (NOD)

Antrim	68
Ards	147
Armagh and South Down	48
Belfast	168
Craigavon	100
Fermanagh and Tyrone	116
Londonderry	81
Total	728

Table 21: Time intervals in weeks

		Issue to disposal
Case	Antrim	24
	Ards	23
	Armagh and South Down	19
	Belfast	20
	Craigavon	23
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	23
	Londonderry	21
	Average	21
Application	Antrim	12
	Ards	12
	Armagh and South Down	3
	Belfast	6
	Craigavon	8
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	9
	Londonderry	7
	Average	7

Excludes default judgements, non-court disposals and office disposals

Criminal Damage

Table 22: Number of criminal damage cases and applications received

Case	Armagh and South Down	1
	Belfast	5
	Craigavon	6
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	1
	Total	13

* No applications received during this period

Table 23: Number of criminal damage cases and applications disposed

		Court disposal	Non court disposal	Total
Case	Belfast	3	2	5
Case	Total	3	2	5
Application	Antrim	1	0	1
Application	Total	1	0	1

Table 24: Outstanding criminal damage cases

Antrim	1
Ards	2
Armagh and South Down	9
Belfast	67
Craigavon	22
Fermanagh and Tyrone	7
Londonderry	12
Total	120

Table 25: Time intervals in weeks

		Issue to disposal
Case	Belfast	97
Case	Total	97
Application	Antrim	11
Application	Total	11

Excludes default judgements and office disposals

Divorces

Table 26: Divorce petitions by type of decrees Nisi

	2 years with consent	5 years separation	Adultery	Unreasonable behaviour	Combination of grounds /other	Total
Antrim	34	27	2	7	6	76
Ards	25	10		1	1	37
Armagh and South Down	18	13		4	2	37
Belfast	32	20	1	2	1	56
Craigavon	43	15		4	2	64
Fermanagh and Tyrone	17	20		2	5	44
Londonderry	26	29	1	11	7	74
Total	195	134	4	31	24	388

Table 27: Divorce petitions by number of absolutes issued

	2 years with consent	5 years separation	Adultery	Unreasonable behaviour	Combination of grounds/other	Total
Antrim	28	13	2	4	6	53
Ards	14	11	2	2	1	30
Armagh and South Down	16	9	1	4	1	31
Belfast	42	26	2	3	1	74
Craigavon	25	16	1	1	2	45
Fermanagh and Tyrone	11	10	1	4	1	27
Londonderry	24	14	1	4	3	46
Total	160	99	10	22	15	306

Table 28: Matrimonial applications received

	Ancillary relief	Matrimonial application to a master	Other	Total
Antrim	12	0	2	14
Ards	0	0	3	3
Armagh and South Down	11	0	1	12
Belfast	1	0	9	10
Craigavon	6	1	1	8
Fermanagh and Tyrone	5	0	0	5
Londonderry	11	1	4	16
Total	46	2	20	68

Table 29: Matrimonial applications disposed

	Ancillary relief	Matrimonial application to a master	Other	Total
Antrim	8	0	0	8
Ards	0	0	2	2
Armagh and South Down	8	0	2	10
Belfast	1	0	0	1
Craigavon	10	1	2	13
Fermanagh and Tyrone	10	0	0	10
Londonderry	11	1	0	12
Total	48	2	6	56

Table 30: Time intervals in weeks for divorce petitions

	Issue to date decree granted	Date decree granted to date absolute issued
Antrim	47	8
Ards	38	9
Armagh and South Down	36	9
Belfast	35	9
Craigavon	31	8
Fermanagh and Tyrone	39	9
Londonderry	43	9
Average	39	9

Table 31: Time intervals in weeks for divorce applications

	Issue to disposal
Antrim	16
Ards	0
Armagh and South Down	27
Craigavon	77
Fermanagh and Tyrone	58
Londonderry	72
Total	53

Excludes non-court disposals

Licences

Table 32: Licences received and disposed

	Licences Received	Licences Disposed
Antrim	16	8
Ards	9	5
Armagh and South Down	6	11
Belfast	37	33
Craigavon	5	5
Fermanagh and Tyrone	5	9
Londonderry	5	5
Total	83	76

Figures provided are based on Court Office returns. Non returns are recorded as zero.

Sitting Days

Table 33: County Court Sitting Days

	Number of sitting days	Average sitting	Total time	Total criminal time	Total civil time	Total family time
	Total time			Total criminal time	Total civil time	Total family time
Antrim	138	3:43:20	513:39:14	334:51:00	157:16:14	21:32:00
Ards	109	2:25:08	263:39:00	126:14:00	133:05:00	4:20:00
Armagh and South Down	92	2:47:06	256:13:03	106:45:00	137:56:03	11:32:00
Belfast	383	3:26:07	1315:40:20	643:47:00	457:55:20	213:58:00
Craigavon	138	3:21:37	463:43:00	240:31:00	158:20:00	64:52:00
Fermanagh and Tyrone	123	3:07:12	383:46:00	229:31:00	134:45:00	19:30:00
Londonderry	128	2:32:26	325:11:00	164:13:00	101:30:00	59:28:00
Total	1111	3:10:12	3521:51:37	1845:52:00	1280:47:37	395:12:00

A court sitting day is counted as any day where the judiciary sit in court. It does not include time in chambers or days where the judiciary are sitting in chambers