County Court Bulletin

October - December 2008 (PROVISIONAL FIGURES)

Table 1: Number of ordinary civil bill cases and applications received
Table 2: Number of ordinary civil bill cases with NIDs received
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
Table 13: Ejectment cases received
Table 14: Ejectment cases disposed
Table 15: Outstanding ejectment cases
Table 16: Time intervals in weeks
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
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 decree
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’s Order cases, magistrate’s 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 1,789 civil bills with NID’s received during the quarter, and 2,822 Civil Bills disposed of, with 1,435 civil bills disposed of in court and 1387 disposed of in the office.
During the period there were 74 Equity cases received and 74 cases dealt with.
There were 211 ejectment cases received and 281 ejectment cases disposed of during the reporting period.
There were 3,637 small claims received and 2,779 disposed of during the period, of which 456 were disposed of in court and 1,524 were default judgments.
In total, 412 Decrees Nisi were granted during the quarter, with 50% of these giving a reason of ‘2 years with consent’. There were 419 decrees absolute granted in the county court with one fifth being granted in Belfast division (20%).
There were 1,091 sitting days during the quarter with 52% of time being spent on criminal business.

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

Civil Bills

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

Case	Antrim	203
	Ards	271
	Armagh and South Down	134
	Belfast	2331
	Craigavon	182
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	160
	Londonderry	137
	Total	3418
Application	Antrim	99
	Ards	136
	Armagh and South Down	110
	Belfast	663
	Craigavon	137
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	83
	Londonderry	104
	Total	1332

Table 2: Number of ordinary civil bill cases with NIDs received by judicial level

	County court judge	District judge	Total
Antrim	135	58	193
Ards	179	73	252
Armagh and South Down	94	65	159
Belfast	523	182	705
Craigavon	125	63	188
Fermanagh and Tyrone	107	38	145
Londonderry	88	59	147
Total	1251	538	1789

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

		Court result - CCJ	Court result - DJ	Non court disposals	Default judgement	Office disposal	Total
Case	Antrim	109	48	36	3	22	218
	Ards	108	82	57	1	19	267
	Armagh and South Down	82	51	34	1	14	182
	Belfast	223	210	109	6	85	633
	Civil Processing Centre			39	740	37	816
	Craigavon	83	106	65	1	24	279
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	99	63	35	2	16	215
	Londonderry	100	71	20	1	20	212
	Total	804	631	395	755	237	2822
Application	Antrim	21	11	27			59
	Ards	11	31	34			76
	Armagh and South Down	20	16	24			60
	Belfast	90	22	128			240
	Civil Processing Centre			7			7
	Craigavon	19	19	21			59
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	24	16	13			53
	Londonderry	30	27	22			79
	Total	215	142	276			633

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	31	17	41	32	36	157
	Ards	52	17	55	43	23	190
	Armagh and South Down	18	23	35	29	28	133
	Belfast	164	40	103	75	51	433
	Craigavon	26	25	68	33	37	189
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	31	14	51	25	41	162
	Londonderry	50	16	40	32	33	171
	Total	372	152	393	269	249	1435

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

Table 5: Outstanding civil bills with NID but no COR

	County court judge	District judge	Total
Antrim	298	116	414
Ards	241	134	375
Armagh and South Down	231	120	351
Belfast	1021	347	1368
Craigavon	283	127	410
Fermanagh and Tyrone	280	94	374
Londonderry	214	139	353
Total	2568	1077	3645

Table 6: Outstanding civil bills with COR

	County court judge	District judge	Total
Antrim	90	32	122
Ards	166	62	228
Armagh and South Down	89	54	143
Belfast	361	115	476
Craigavon	100	49	149
Fermanagh and Tyrone	73	60	133
Londonderry	69	37	106
Total	948	409	1357

Table 7: Time intervals in weeks for civil bill cases

		Issue to disposal
Case	Antrim	48
	Ards	37
	Armagh and South Down	43
	Belfast	38
	Craigavon	44
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	50
	Londonderry	58
	Total	44

Excludes default judgements and office disposals

Table 8: Time intervals in weeks for civil bill applications

		Issue to disposal
Application	Antrim	3
	Ards	3
	Armagh and South Down	5
	Belfast	7
	Craigavon	6
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	5
	Londonderry	5
	Total	6

Excludes default judgements and office disposals

Equity

Table 9: Equity cases and applications received

Case	Antrim	10
	Ards	12
	Armagh and South Down	7
	Belfast	14
	Craigavon	9
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	17
	Londonderry	5
	Total	74
Application	Antrim	1
	Ards	5
	Armagh and South Down	4
	Belfast	6
	Craigavon	4
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	9
	Londonderry	7
	Total	36

Table 10: Equity cases and applications disposed

		Court result	Non court disposals	Total
Case	Antrim	11	1	12
	Ards	5		5
	Armagh and South Down	7	2	9
	Belfast	16	3	19
	Craigavon	6		6
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	11		11
	Londonderry	11	1	12
	Total	67	7	74
Application	Antrim	2		2
	Ards	4	1	5
	Armagh and South Down	1	1	2
	Belfast	3		3
	Craigavon	3		3
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	7		7
	Londonderry	5	2	7
	Total	22	4	29

Table 11: Outstanding equity cases

Case	Antrim	46
	Ards	56
	Armagh and South Down	49
	Belfast	106
	Craigavon	41
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	62
	Londonderry	39
Total		399

Table 12: Time intervals in weeks

		Issue to disposal
Case	Antrim	33
	Ards	43
	Armagh and South Down	47
	Belfast	43
	Craigavon	23
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	62
	Londonderry	67
	Total	47
Application	Antrim	7
	Ards	7
	Armagh and South Down	0
	Belfast	6
	Craigavon	22
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	4
	Londonderry	3
	Total	7

Ejectment

Table 13: Ejectment cases received

Case	Antrim	26
	Ards	34
	Armagh and South Down	7
	Belfast	101
	Craigavon	31
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	6
	Londonderry	6
	Total	211

Table 14: Ejectment cases disposed

		Court result	Non court disposals	Total
Case	Antrim	36		36
	Ards	56	1	57
	Armagh and South Down	14		14
	Belfast	134		134
	Craigavon	21		21
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	11		11
	Londonderry	5	3	8
	Total	277	4	281

Table 15: Outstanding ejectment cases with NID

Case	Antrim	5
	Ards	10
	Armagh and South Down	5
	Belfast	17
	Craigavon	6
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	5
	Londonderry	7
Total		55

Table 16: Time intervals in weeks

		Issue to disposal
Case	Antrim	10
	Ards	11
	Armagh and South Down	13
	Belfast	17
	Craigavon	15
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	28
	Londonderry	15
	Total	15

Excludes default judgements, non-court disposals and office disposals

Small Claims

Table 17: Number of small claims cases and applications received

Case	Antrim	66
	Ards	87
	Armagh and South Down	52
	Belfast	3276
	Craigavon	57
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	60
	Londonderry	39
	Total	3637
Application	Antrim	6
	Ards	7
	Armagh and South Down	2
	Belfast	35
	Craigavon	6
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	10
	Londonderry	4
	Total	70

Table 18: Number of small claims cases with NODs received

Case	Antrim	63
	Ards	97
	Armagh and South Down	47
	Belfast	167
	Craigavon	57
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	60
	Londonderry	42
Total		533

Table 19: Number of small claims cases and applications disposed

		Court disposal	Non court disposal	Office disposal	Default judgement	Total
Case	Antrim	66	3	2		71
	Ards	71	1	23	5	100
	Armagh and South Down	51		3	1	55
	Belfast	127	27	711	1513	2378
	Craigavon	59	2	15		76
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	42		5	4	51
	Londonderry	40		7	1	48
	Total	456	33	766	1524	2779
Application	Antrim	4	1			5
	Ards	7	1			8
	Belfast	30	1			31
	Craigavon	3				3
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	1				1
	Londonderry	3	2			5
	Total	48	5			53

Table 20: Outstanding small claims with NOD

Antrim	120
Ards	192
Armagh and South Down	92
Belfast	314
Craigavon	117
Fermanagh and Tyrone	126
Londonderry	94
Total	1055

Table 21: Time intervals in weeks

		Issue to disposal
Case	Antrim	17
	Ards	23
	Armagh and South Down	20
	Belfast	19
	Craigavon	25
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	20
	Londonderry	15
	Total	20
Application	Antrim	4
	Ards	12
	Belfast	7
	Craigavon	9
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	15
	Londonderry	15
	Total	8

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	16
	Craigavon	2
	Fermanagh and Tyrone	1
	Total	20

Table 23: Number of criminal damage cases and applications disposed

		Court disposal	Total
Case	Belfast	1	1
Case	Total	1	1

Table 24: Outstanding criminal damage cases

Antrim	1
Ards	2
Armagh and South Down	9
Belfast	102
Craigavon	18
Fermanagh and Tyrone	12
Londonderry	14
Total	158

Table 25: Time intervals in weeks

		Issue to disposal
Case	Belfast	0
Case	Total	0

Excludes default judgements and office disposals

Divorces

Table 26: Divorce Petitions by type of decree

	2 years with consent	5 years separation	Adultery	Unreasonable behaviour	Combination of grounds/other	Total
Antrim	48	31		8	6	93
Ards	17	15	2		1	35
Armagh and South Down	15	8	1	2	4	30
Belfast	46	36	1	3		86
Craigavon	40	15	2	4	3	64
Fermanagh and Tyrone	15	17	1	11	4	48
Londonderry	26	17		11	2	56
Total	207	139	7	39	20	412

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	34	30		7	2	73
Ards	28	24	1	2	4	59
Armagh and South Down	26	13				39
Belfast	47	30	1	4	2	84
Craigavon	44	14	1	2	2	63
Fermanagh and Tyrone	13	16		5	6	40
Londonderry	28	17	1	11	4	61
Total	220	144	4	31	20	419

Table 28: Matrimonial applications received

	Combination of grounds/other	Ancillary relief	Matrimonial application to a master	Other	Total
Antrim		8		1	9
Ards		3		1	4
Armagh and South Down		20			20
Belfast	1		1	25	27
Craigavon		6		2	8
Fermanagh and Tyrone		8		2	10
Londonderry		19		4	23
Total	1	64	1	35	101

Table 29: Matrimonial applications disposed

	Ancillary relief	Matrimonial application to a master	Other	Total
Antrim	8			8
Ards	3		3	6
Armagh and South Down	1			1
Belfast	2		1	3
Craigavon	5		1	6
Fermanagh and Tyrone	3		1	4
Londonderry	12	2	1	15
Total	34	2	7	43

Table 30: Time intervals in weeks for divorce petitions

	Issue to date decree granted	Date decree granted to date absolute issued
Antrim	24	8
Ards	20	9
Armagh and South Down	39	9
Belfast	32	10
Craigavon	25	8
Fermanagh and Tyrone	24	9
Londonderry	39	9
Total	29	9

Table 31: Time intervals in weeks for divorce applications

	Issue to disposal
Antrim	48
Ards	25
Armagh and South Down	2
Belfast	30
Craigavon	32
Fermanagh and Tyrone	21
Londonderry	66
Total	43

Excludes non-court disposals

Licences

Table 32: Licences received and disposed

	Licenses Received	Licences Disposed
Antrim	43	42
Ards	36	32
Armagh and South Down	35	40
Belfast	67	65
Craigavon	23	16
Fermanagh and Tyrone	90	49
Londonderry	36	36
Total	330	280

County Court and District Judge Sitting Days

Table 33: County Court Judge and District Judge Sitting Days

	Total time			Total criminal time	Total civil time	Total family time
	Number of sitting days	Average sitting	Total time	Total criminal time	Total civil time	Total family time
Antrim	135	2:44:23	369:53:14	215:17:00	136:59:14	17:37:00
Ards	109	2:17:02	248:57:00	116:58:00	127:09:00	4:50:00
Armagh and South Down	97	2:42:37	262:54:00	104:56:00	149:07:00	8:51:00
Belfast	366	2:46:58	1018:33:00	550:36:00	300:43:00	167:14:00
Craigavon	123	3:21:49	413:44:00	196:30:00	125:32:00	91:42:00
Fermanagh and Tyrone	131	2:55:28	383:08:00	188:42:00	160:25:00	34:01:00
Londonderry	130	3:23:04	439:59:00	248:34:00	138:45:00	52:40:00
Total	1091	2:52:31	3137:08:14	1621:33:00	1138:40:14	376:55:00

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