High Court Bulletin

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 1,959 cases received into the Chancery division. In total, 68% were chancery cases, 26% were bankruptcy cases and 6% were companies’ cases. There were 748 cases disposed of during the reporting period.
Queen’s Bench
There were 1,836 writs received in Queen’s Bench (Fig 1). Of those, 59% were negligence cases. There were 208 default judgments, 214 office disposals and 169 court disposals for writs during the quarter. There were 56 removals and remittals applications dealt with.
Judicial Reviews
There were 64 applications for leave to apply for Judicial Review and 18 applications for Judicial Review received during the quarter. Of the 42 applications for Judicial Review disposed of during the quarter, 18 were granted.
Probate
There were 1,461 grants issued during the quarter in the probate office.
Wardship and Adoption
There were 24 adoption applications received and 13 adoption applications disposed of during the quarter. It took, on average, 37 weeks for an adoption application to progress through the courts.
Matrimonial
There were 738 divorce petitions lodged in the High Court. Of these, 497 petitions were lodged by the wife. In total, 101 decrees nisi and 190 absolutes were issued.
Patients
There were 207 new referrals in the Patients section.
Official Solicitors
There were 713 certificates drafted in the Official Solicitors office.
Sitting days and times
There were 307 sitting days in the High Court during the quarter (Fig 2).

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	1124
	Other land and property	47
	Trade and business	9
	Trusts	4
	Other	140
	Total	1324
Application	Notice of appointment	964
	Summons	251
	Notice of motion	7
	Exparte application	76
	Injunction	1
	Total	1299

Table 2: Chancery cases setdown

Case	Other land and property	10
	Other	17
	Total	27

Table 3: Chancery cases and applications disposed

		High Court Judge	Master	Office disposal	Total
Case	Mortgages		299	6	305
	Other land and property	10		1	11
	Trade and business			2	2
	Trusts	1			1
	Other	7	4	11	22
	Total	18	303	20	341
Application	Notice of appointment	1	6		7
	Summons	10	56		66
	Exparte application	4	69		73
	Total	15	131		146

Table 4: Bankruptcy cases and applications received

Case	Petition by another person	317
	Petition by debtor	120
	Originating application	49
	Other	27
	Total	513
Application	Notice of motion	1
	Ordinary application	226
	Certificate of automatic discharge	5
	Total	232

Table 5: Bankruptcy cases and applications disposed

		High Court Judge	Master	Total
Case	Petition by another person	1	254	255
	Petition by debtor		78	78
	Other petition		3	3
	Originating application		13	13
	Other		8	8
	Total	1	356	357
Application	Notice of motion		2	2
	Ordinary application		129	129
	Certificate of automatic discharge		4	4
	Other		4	4
	Total		139	139

Table 6: Companies cases and applications received

Case	Winding up petition	77
	Originating summons	40
	Other	5
	Total	122
Application	Ordinary application	5
	Other	2
	Total	7

Table 7: Companies cases and applications disposed

		Master	Total
Case	Winding up petition	45	45
	Other petitions	2	2
	Originating summons	3	3
	Total	50	50
Application	Notice of motion	1	1
	Ordinary application	1	1
	Other	1	1
	Total	3	3

Table 8: Time intervals in weeks

	Chancery		Bankruptcy		Companies
	Case	Application	Case	Application	Case	Application
Issue to first listing	30	9	11	5	11	9
First listing to disposal	8	5	6	2	3	4
Issue to disposal	41	8	17	6	14	9

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	1087
	Breach	47
	Road injuries	252
	Personal injuries	84
	Monies due	325
	Other	41
	Total	1836
Miscellaneous	Foreign judgement	117
	Other	15
	Total	132
Applications	Summons/interlocutory applications	399
	Remittals and removals	136
	Exparte applications	77
	Other	96
	Total	708

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

	Unliquidated	£1,000-2,999	£3,000-14,999	Over £15,000	Total
Negligence	1086			1	1087
Breach	46			1	47
Road injuries	252				252
Personal injuries	84				84
Monies due	14	11	93	207	325
Other	41				41
Total	1523	11	93	209	1836

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

	Unliquidated	£1,000-2,999	£3,000-14,999	Over £15,000	Total
Negligence	303		1	2	306
Breach	3			2	5
Road injuries	96			5	101
Personal injuries	29			4	33
Monies due	3	1		3	7
Other	14		2	2	18
Total	448	1	3	18	470

Table 12: Queen's Bench cases and applications disposed

		High Court Judge	Master	Office disposal	Default judgement	Total
Writs and originating summons	Negligence	102	3	100	8	213
	Breach	3		7	1	11
	Road injuries	28	2	47	3	80
	Personal injuries	19	2	38	2	61
	Monies due	3		8	188	199
	Other	7		14	6	27
	Total	162	7	214	208	591
Miscellaneous	Foreign judgement		3			3
	Other			1		1
	Total		3	1		4
Applications	Summons/interlocutory applications	13	207			220
	Remittals and removals		56			56
	Exparte applications	6	52			58
	Other	51	48			99
	Total	70	363			433

Excludes commercial actions

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

		Unliquidated	£1,000-2,999	£3,000-14,999	Over £15,000	Total
High Court Judge	Negligence	51	2	20	29	102
	Breach	2	1			3
	Road injuries	2		8	18	28
	Personal injuries	11		4	4	19
	Monies due	3				3
	Other	7				7
Master	Negligence	3				3
	Road injuries	1			1	2
	Personal injuries	2				2
Default judgement	Negligence	8				8
	Breach	1				1
	Road injuries	3				3
	Personal injuries	2				2
	Monies due	7	4	84	93	188
	Other	1		2	3	6
Total		104	7	118	148	377

Excludes commercial actions

Table 14: Queen's Bench commercial actions setdown

Negligence	2
Breach	4
Monies due	3
Total	9

Table 15: Queen's Bench commercial actions disposed

	High Court Judge	Office disposal	Total
Negligence	1	2	3
Breach	3	1	4
Monies due	10		10
Total	14	3	17

Table 16: Time intervals in weeks

	Writs and originating summons	Commercial actions	Miscellaneous	Applications
Issue to setdown	99	135	.	.
Issue to first listing	105	106	.	7
First listing to disposal	26	60	.	5
Issue to disposal	129	183	0	22

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	64
Application for judicial review	18

Table 18: Judicial Reviews applications disposed

	Granted	Withdrawn/Refused/Dismissed	Other	Total
Application for leave to apply for judicial review	18	19	5	42
Application for judicial review	1	5	8	14

Table 19: Time intervals in weeks

	Application for leave to apply for judicial review	Application for judicial review
Issue to first listing	3	8
First listing to disposal	5	38
Issue to disposal	8	46

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	Northern Ireland
	By solicitor	By solicitor	Northern Ireland
Letters of administration with will annexed	4	39	43
Letters of administration with will annexed (DBN)		6	6
Letters of administration	67	238	305
Grant of probate	177	918	1095
Letters of administration (DBN)	5	7	12
Total grants issued	253	1208	1461

Wardship and adoption

Table 21: Adoption cases and applications received

Adoption Order Application	14
Child Abduction Originating Summons	2
Freeing Order Application	2
Originating Summons (General)	1
Interlocutory Application	3
Wardship Originating Summons	2
Total	24

Table 22: Adoption cases and applications disposed

	High Court Judge	Master	Total
Adoption Order Application	7		7
Child Abduction Originating Summons	1		1
Freeing Order Application	1		1
Interlocutory Application	2		2
Wardship Originating Summons		2	2
Total	11	2	13

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

App For Occup/Non Mol	4
Exparte App For Occup/Non Mol	15
Total	19

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

	High Court Judge	Master	Total
App For Occup/Non Mol		3	3
App For Occup/Non Mol		1	1
Exparte App For Occup/Non Mol	1	7	8
Total	1	11	12

Table 25: Time intervals in weeks

	Adoption	Family Homes And Domestic Violence
Issue to first listing	24	0
First listing to disposal	15	15
Issue to disposal	37	15

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	210	102	312
	5 years separation	114	76	190
	Adultery	23	8	31
	Unreasonable behaviour	120	38	158
	Combination of grounds/other	30	17	47
Total		497	241	738

Table 27: Divorce petitions by type of Decree Nisi

		Found by
		Wife	Husband	Both	Total
Decree Nisi	2 years with consent	19	14		33
	5 years separation	14	5		19
	Unreasonable behaviour	12	6	1	19
	Combination of grounds/other	22	8		30
Total		67	33	1	101

Table 28: Divorce petitions by number of absolutes issued

		Found by
		Wife	Husband	Both	Total
Divorce Petition	2 years with consent	39	28		67
	5 years separation	28	21		49
	Adultery	2	1		3
	Unreasonable behaviour	36	4		40
	Combination of grounds/other	23	7	1	31
Total		128	61	1	190

Table 29: Matrimonial applications received

Application	Combination of grounds/other	3
	Ancillary relief	111
	Matrimonial application	169
	Other	20
Total		303

Table 30: Matrimonial applications disposed

		Judge	Master	Total
Application	Combination of grounds/other	2		2
	Ancillary relief	1	106	107
	Matrimonial application	7	125	132
	Other	2	1	3
Total		12	232	244

Table 31: Time intervals in weeks for divorce petitions

	Divorce Petition
Issue to first listing	44
First listing to date decree granted	6
Issue to date decree granted	49
Date decree granted to date absolute issued	5

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	9	48	2
First listing to disposal	12	54	3	1
Issue to disposal	12	63	51	3

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

High Court Bails

Table 33: Number of bail applications received

Bail application	383
Bail pending appeal to county court	8
Compassionate bail application	40
Application to revoke bail	2
TIM	1
Bail variation	137
Total	571

Table 34: Number of bail applications disposed in chambers

	Granted	Refused	Other	Total
Bail application	3	1		4
Bail variation	78	1	14	93
Total	81	2	14	97

Table 35: Number of bail applications disposed of in court

	Granted	Refused	Other	Total
Bail application	164	168	20	352
Bail pending appeal to county court	4	2		6
Compassionate bail application	22	14	2	38
Application to revoke bail	1		1	2
Bail variation	29	9	2	40
Total	220	193	25	438

Patients

Table 36: Patients Statistics

New referrals	207
EPA applications received	88
Orders issued	215
Certificates issued	1443
Reviews completed	178
Visits	0

Official Solicitors Office

Table 37: Official Solicitors Statistics

Correspondence received	1814
New Referrals	11
Cases OS assisting OCP	19
OS appointed Controller Ad interim	2
Certificates drafted	713
OS appointed Full Controller	2

Sitting days and times

Table 38: High Court sitting days

Children Order	24
Other Family	8
Appeals	2
Queen's Bench	60
Chancery	21
Bails	69
Crown	65
Judicial Reviews	43
Criminal Appeals	4
Civil Appeals	11
Total	307

Table 39: High Court sitting times

Children Order	43:01:00
Other family	13:10:00
Appeals	2:35:00
Queens Bench	173:00:00
Chancery	46:05:00
Bails	152:00:00
Callover	0:00:00
Crown	184:56:00
Judicial reviews	86:04:00
Criminal appeals	9:50:00
Civil appeals	17:08:00
Total time	727:49:00