High Court Bulletin

Summary

Chancery

Queen’s Bench

Judicial Reviews

Probate

Wardship and adoption

Matrimonial

High Court Bails

Patients

Official Solicitors Office

Sitting days and times

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.

Chancery
There were 1,840 cases received into the Chancery division. In total, 59% were chancery cases, 33% were bankruptcy cases and 8% were companies’ cases. There were 1,598 cases disposed of during the reporting period.
Queen’s Bench
There were 1,820 writs received in Queen’s Bench. Of those, 57% were negligence cases. There were 149 default judgments, 359 office disposals and 548 court disposals for writs during the quarter. There were 147 removals and remittals applications dealt with.
Judicial Reviews
There were 70 applications for leave to apply for Judicial Review and 24 applications for Judicial Review received during the quarter. Of the 29 applications for Judicial Review disposed of during the quarter, 6 were granted.
Probate
There were 1,640 grants issued during the quarter in the probate office.
Wardship and Adoption
There were 40 adoption applications received and 29 adoption applications disposed of during the quarter. It took, on average, 36 weeks for an adoption application to progress through the courts.
Matrimonial
There were 689 divorce petitions lodged in the High Court. Of these, 429 petitions were lodged by the wife. In total, 252 decrees nisi and 263 absolutes were issued.
Patients
There were 163 new referrals in the Patients section.
Official Solicitors
There were 982 certificates drafted in the Official Solicitors office.
Sitting days and times
There were 621 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

Table 1: Chancery cases and applications received

Case	Mortgages	954
	Other land and property	46
	Trade and business	5
	Trusts	1
	Other	83
	Total	1089
Application	Notice of appointment	944
	Summons	238
	Notice of motion	5
	Exparte application	80
	Injunction	9
	Transfer to Commercial List	2
	Total	1278

Table 2: Chancery cases setdown

Case	Other land and property	4
	Trade and business	4
	Trusts	1
	Other	12
	Total	21

Table 3: Chancery cases and applications disposed

		High Court Judge	Master	Office disposal	Total
Case	Mortgages	1	778	1	780
	Other land and property	33		2	35
	Trade and business	5			5
	Trusts	3	1		4
	Other	42	9	5	56
	Total	84	788	8	880
Application	Notice of appointment		9		9
	Summons	33	145		178
	Notice of motion	10			10
	Exparte application	6	55		61
	Injunction	2			2
	Total	51	209		260

Table 4: Bankruptcy cases and applications received

Case	Petition by another person	374
	Petition by debtor	152
	Other petition	2
	Originating application	56
	Other	28
	Total	612
Application	Notice of motion	2
	Ordinary application	281
	Certificate of automatic discharge	4
	Other	9
	Total	296

Table 5: Bankruptcy cases and applications disposed

		High Court Judge	Master	Total
Case	Petition by another person	1	398	399
	Petition by debtor		153	153
	Other petition		3	3
	Originating application		32	32
	Other		22	22
	Total	1	608	609
Application	Ordinary application	1	234	235
	Certificate of automatic discharge		3	3
	Other		5	5
	Total	1	242	243

Table 6: Companies cases and applications received

Case	Winding up petition	83
	Other petitions	1
	Originating summons	46
	Other	9
	Total	139
Application	Notice of motion	4
	Ordinary application	10
	Other	1
	Total	15

Table 7: Companies cases and applications disposed

		High Court Judge	Master	Total
Case	Winding up petition		87	87
	Other petitions	2	1	3
	Originating summons	1	16	17
	Other	1	1	2
	Total	4	105	109
Application	Notice of motion		1	1
	Ordinary application		5	5
	Total		6	6

Table 8: Time intervals in weeks

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

Table 9: Queen's Bench cases and applications received

Writs and originating summons	Negligence	1036
	Breach	31
	Road injuries	282
	Personal injuries	99
	Monies due	313
	Other	59
	Total	1820
Miscellaneous	Foreign judgement	87
	Other	39
	Total	126
Applications	Summons/interlocutory applications	563
	Remittals and removals	164
	Exparte applications	86
	Other	139
	Total	952

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

	Unliquated	£1,000-2,999	£3,000-14,999	Over £15,000	Total
Negligence	1036				1036
Breach	29			2	31
Road injuries	282				282
Personal injuries	99				99
Monies due	43	10	83	177	313
Other	57		1	1	59
Total	1546	10	84	180	1820

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

	Unliquated	£3,000-14,999	Over £15,000	Total
Negligence	257	1	2	260
Breach	5		3	8
Road injuries	108	1	2	111
Personal injuries	33	3	4	40
Monies due	4	1	2	7
Other	16			16
Total	423	6	13	442

Table 12: Queen's Bench cases and applications disposed

		High Court Judge	Master	Office disposal	Default judgement	Total
Writs and originating summons	Negligence	308	14	116	14	452
	Breach	12	1	10	3	26
	Road injuries	112	5	136	2	255
	Personal injuries	51	14	58	1	124
	Monies due	3	1	6	124	134
	Other	27		33	5	65
	Total	513	35	359	149	1056
Miscellaneous	Other	12	1	1		14
Miscellaneous	Total	12	1	1		14
Applications	Summons/interlocutory applications	46	448			494
	Remittals and removals	1	146			147
	Exparte applications	11	48			59
	Other	41	85			126
	Total	99	727			826

Excludes commercial actions

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

		Unliquated	Less than £1,000	£1,000-2,999	£3,000-14,999	Over £15,000	Total
High Court Judge	Negligence	174	1	7	41	85	308
	Breach	7			3	2	12
	Road injuries	17		1	16	78	112
	Personal injuries	36		1	7	7	51
	Monies due	1			1	1	3
	Other	17			3	7	27
Master	Negligence	12			1	1	14
	Breach	1					1
	Road injuries	4			1		5
	Personal injuries	14					14
	Monies due	1					1
Default judgement	Negligence	13				1	14
	Breach	3					3
	Road injuries	2					2
	Personal injuries	1					1
	Monies due	2		2	47	73	124
	Other	2			1	2	5
Total		307	1	11	121	257	697

Excludes commercial actions

Table 14: Queen's Bench commercial actions setdown

Breach	4
Monies due	5
Total	9

Table 15: Queen's Bench commercial actions disposed

	High Court Judge	Master	Office disposal	Default judgement	Total
Negligence	12	1		1	14
Breach	12				12
Monies due	10		1		11
Other	4			1	5
Total	38	1	1	2	42

Table 16: Time intervals in weeks

	Writs and originating summons	Commercial actions	Miscelleanous	Applications
Issue to setdown	101	115	.	.
Issue to first listing	106	95	10	2
First listing to disposal	23	42	20	5
Issue to disposal	128	135	26	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

Table 17: Judicial Reviews applications received

Application for leave to apply for judicial review	70
Application for judicial review	24
Ancillary applications	2

Table 18: Judicial Reviews applications disposed

	Granted	Withdrawn/Refused/Dismissed	Other	Total
Application for leave to apply for judicial review	25	41	6	72
Application for judicial review	6	14	9	29
Ancillary applications			2	2

Table 19: Time intervals in weeks

	Application for leave to apply for judicial review	Application for judicial review	Ancillary applications
Issue to first listing	3	38	2
First listing to disposal	6	23	15
Issue to disposal	9	63	7

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

Table 20: Probate grants issued in non-contentious proceedings

	District registry	Probate	Northern Ireland
	By solicitor	By solicitor	Northern Ireland
Letters of administration with will annexed	7	36	43
Letters of administration with will annexed (DBN)		7	7
Letters of administration	63	269	332
Grant of probate	191	1058	1249
Letters of administration (DBN)	1	8	9
Total grants issued	262	1378	1640

Table 21: Adoption cases and applications received

Adoption Order Application	22
Child Abduction Originating Summons	3
Children (Ni) Order Application	1
Freeing Order Application	5
Originating Summons	1
Interlocutory Application	4
Wardship Originating Summons	4
Total	40

Table 22: Adoption cases and applications disposed

	High Court Judge	Master	Office disposal	Total
Adoption Order Application	18		2	20
Freeing Order Application	4			4
Interlocutory Application	2			2
Wardship Originating Summons	1	2		3
Total	25	2	2	29

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

App For Occup/Non Mol	9
Exparte App For Occup/Non Mol	3
Total	12

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

	High Court Judge	Master	Total
App For Occup/Non Mol	4	8	12
Exparte App For Occup/Non Mol	2	6	8
Total	6	14	20

Table 25: Time intervals in weeks

	Adoption	Family Homes And Domestic Violence
Issue to first listing	28	1
First listing to disposal	10	18
Issue to disposal	36	18

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

Table 26: Divorce petitions received

		Filed by
		Wife	Husband	Total
Divorce Petition	2 years with consent	168	117	285
	5 years separation	84	101	185
	Adultery	30	9	39
	Unreasonable behaviour	121	23	144
	Combination of grounds/other	26	10	36
Total		429	260	689

Table 27: Divorce petitions by type of Decree Nisi

		Found by
		Wife	Husband	Both	Total
Decree Nisi	2 years with consent	55	38		93
	5 years separation	29	23		52
	Adultery	6			6
	Unreasonable behaviour	44	3		47
	Combination of grounds/other	38	13	1	52
Judicial Separation	Combination of grounds/other	2			2
Total		174	77	1	252

Table 28: Divorce petitions by number of absolutes issued

		Found by
		Wife	Husband	Both	Total
Divorce Petition	2 years with consent	65	28		93
	5 years separation	40	31		71
	Adultery	5	2		7
	Unreasonable behaviour	41	2		43
	Combination of grounds/other	37	9	3	49
Total		188	72	3	263

Table 29: Matrimonial applications received

Application	Combination of grounds/other	11
	Ancillary relief	135
	Matrimonial application	167
	Other	10
Total		323

Table 30: Matrimonial applications disposed

		Judge	Master	Total
Application	Combination of grounds/other	1		1
	Ancillary relief	2	131	133
	Matrimonial application	6	163	169
	Other	4	1	5
Total		13	295	308

Table 31: Time intervals in weeks for divorce petitions

	Divorce Petition
Issue to first listing	37
First listing to date decree granted	3
Issue to date decree granted	39
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	0	10	7	1
First listing to disposal	21	45	6	10
Issue to disposal	21	54	12	11

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

Table 33: Number of bail applications received

Bail application	352
Bail pending appeal to county court	10
Compassionate bail application	56
Application to revoke bail	3
Schedule 2 breach	1
TIM	3
Bail variation	117
Total	542

Table 34: Number of bail applications disposed in chambers

	Granted	Other	Total
Bail application	1		1
Bail pending appeal to county court	1		1
Bail variation	68	8	76
Total	70	8	78

Table 35: Number of bail applications disposed of in court

	Granted	Refused	Revoke	Other	Total
Bail application	132	163		23	318
Bail pending appeal to county court	3	7			10
Compassionate bail application	40	11		2	53
Application to revoke bail			1		1
Schedule 2 breach	1				1
Bail variation	24	3		3	30
Total	200	184	1	28	413

Table 36: Patients Workload figures

New referrals	163
EPA applications received	69
Orders issued	206
Certificates issued	1682
Reviews completed	191
Visits	6

Table 37: Official Solicitor Statistics

Correspondence received	2311
New Referrals	14
Cases OS assisting OCP	4
OS appointed Controller Ad interim	4
Certificates drafted	982
OS appointed Full Controller	5

Chancery

Bankruptcy

Companies

Application

Application

Application

Issue to first listing

First listing to disposal

Issue to disposal

Table 38: High Court sitting days

Children Order	39
Other Family	31
Appeals	4
Queen's Bench	162
Chancery	62
Bails	87
Crown	113
Judicial Reviews	80
Criminal Appeals	19
Civil Appeals	24
Total	621

Table 39: High Court sitting times

Children Order	76:30:00
Other family	63:37:40
Appeals	4:40:00
Queen's Bench	335:50:00
Chancery	147:20:00
Bails	167:38:35
Crown	273:01:00
Judicial reviews	144:21:00
Criminal appeals	52:50:10.
Civil appeals	40:50:00
Total time	1306:38:25