Judicial and Court Statistics 2009 Version 1.1 - revised October 2010 Version 1.1 - Revised October 2010 - revisions to pages 127 and 130. Contents Introductory Note 3 Background on the court system in England and Wales 5 Main findings 7 1. County courts (non-family) 13 2. Family matters 43 3. Magistrates’ courts 65 4. The Crown Court 91 5. High Court – Chancery Division 125 6. High Court – Queen’s Bench Division 135 7. Appellate Courts 149 8. The Mental Capacity Act 177 9. Offices of the Supreme Court 189 10. The Judiciary 195 11. Assessment of litigation costs, and publicly funded legal services 207 Annex A: Data quality and sources 219 Glossary 235 Explanatory notes 243 Contacts 244 Judicial and Court Statistics 2009 | Introductory Note Introductory Note This report presents statistics on judicial and court activity in England and Wales in 2009. It was formally entitled “Judicial Statistics” for the 2005 edition and earlier years, which was published by the Department for Constitutional Affairs and its predecessors. Report structure This report provides statistics on activity in the county, family, Crown and magistrates’ courts of England and Wales along with statistics on the work of the High Court, Court of Appeal, UK Supreme Court and some associated offices and agencies, such as the Court of Protection, the Office of the Public Guardian and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. Chapters 1 to 7 each start with a commentary section which includes a brief description of the function, constitution and jurisdiction of the relevant court type, an explanation of some of the procedures involved, and description of the latest statistics and trends. The chapters conclude with statistical tables. Chapter 8 provides summary statistics on casework of the Court of Protection and the Office of the Public Guardian, while Chapter 9 contains casework data relating to the Offices of the Supreme Court. Chapters 10 and 11 deal with the judiciary and assessment of litigation costs and publicly funded legal services, respectively. The statistics give a summary overview of the volume of cases dealt with by these courts and offices over time, broken down for the main types of case involved. The statistics are used to monitor court workloads, to assist in the development of policy, and their subsequent monitoring and evaluation. Annex A provides summary information on data sources for the figures given in this report, along with a brief discussion on data quality and highlighting any significant revisions compared to previously published statistics. There is also a Glossary section which provides brief definitions for some of the main terms used in this report. Information about statistical revisions, forthcoming changes and the symbols and conventions used in the bulletin are given in the Explanatory Notes section. 3 Judicial and Court Statistics 2009 | Introductory Note Other court statistics published by the Ministry of Justice Provisional statistics on many aspects of activity in the county, family, Crown and magistrates’ courts of England and Wales in 2009 have already been published by the Ministry of Justice in the statistical bulletin “Court Statistics Quarterly”. The statistics presented in “Judicial and Court Statistics” constitute final figures for 2009, and show more detailed tables than in the quarterly report. Most revisions compared to the figures already published in Court Statistics Quarterly reflect updates to administrative data sources since figures were first compiled. This report is published at the same time as the Q2 (April to June) 2010 edition of Court Statistics Quarterly. These statistical bulletins are available from the Ministry of Justice website at: www.justice.gov.uk/publications/judicialandcourtstatistics.htm www.justice.gov.uk/publications/courtstatisticsquarterly.htm The Ministry of Justice also publishes three quarterly statistical reports focusing on a particular aspect of court workload in detail, covering statistics on the timeliness of criminal cases in the magistrates’ courts (summary statistics also shown in Chapter 3 of this report), mortgage and landlord possession actions in the county courts, and company winding-up and bankruptcy petitions in the county courts. These bulletins are also available from the Ministry of Justice website at, respectively: http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/timeintervals.htm http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/mortgatelandlordpossession.htm http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/companywindingupandbankruptcy.htm If you have any feedback, questions or requests for further information about this statistical bulletin, please direct them to the appropriate contact given at the end of this report. Tribunals’ statistics Although this report contains statistics on appeals against the decisions of various tribunals’, it does not contain statistics on the work of the Tribunals Service and the Tribunals judiciary. Quarterly statistics on the workload in the Tribunals Service can be found at: http://www.tribunals.gov.uk/Tribunals/Publications/publications.htm If you have a specific query regarding statistics for the Tribunals Service, please contact: [email protected] 4 Judicial and Court Statistics 2009 | Background on the court system in England and Wales Background on the court system in England and Wales Virtually all criminal cases in England and Wales start in a magistrates’ court. The less serious offences are handled entirely in magistrates’ courts. More serious offences are passed on to the Crown Court, either for sentencing after the defendant has been found guilty in a magistrates’ court, or for a full trial with a judge and jury. The Crown Court also receives appeals against decisions of the magistrates’ courts. Cases in the magistrates’ courts are heard by either two or three lay magistrates (local people who volunteer their services, who may not have formal legal qualifications but will have undertaken a training programme to develop the necessary skills) or by one District Judge (legally qualified, paid, full-time professionals, who are usually based in the larger cities and normally hear the more complex or sensitive cases). Crown Court cases may be heard by Circuit Judges, Recorders or a High Court Judge, depending on the seriousness of the offence. The vast majority of civil cases in England and Wales which do not involve family matters or failure to pay council tax or child maintenance are handled in the county courts. These cases are typically related to debt, the repossession of property, personal injury and insolvency. Once a claim has been served, the usual options for the defendant are to do nothing, pay up, admit the claim and ask for more time to pay up, and/or dispute the claim. The vast majority of claims are either not defended, or settle or are withdrawn before a hearing or trial. Particularly important, complex or substantial cases are dealt with in the High Court. All family matters in England and Wales are dealt with at Family Proceedings Courts (which are part of the magistrates’ courts), at county courts or in the Family Division of the High Court. Family courts deal with matters such as: parental disputes, local authority intervention to protect children, matrimonial cases such as divorce petitions, the financial provisions for children after divorce or relationship breakdown, domestic violence remedies and adoption. As noted above, some civil and family cases are generally dealt with in the High Court rather than in a lower court. The High Court’s Chancery Division primarily deals with the resolution of disputes involving property (e.g. land, business, and intellectual property), taxation, mortgages, insolvency, and others. The High Court’s Queen’s Bench Division deals mainly with civil actions in contract and tort (civil wrongs), and also deals with more specialist matters such as 5 Judicial and Court Statistics 2009 | Background on the court system in England and Wales applications for judicial reviews. As well as dealing with such cases outright, the High Court also hears appeals involving such matters where they were originally heard in the county and magistrates’ courts. Most proceedings in the High Court are heard by a single judge, but certain kinds of proceedings may be heard by two or more judges. On rare occasions cases may have a jury. The Court of Appeal of England and Wales is the second most senior court in the country. The Court of Appeal’s Criminal Division hears appeals concerning criminal matters originally dealt with at the Crown Court, while the Civil Division hears appeals concerning cases heard at the county courts and High Court (and also from tribunals). Permission to appeal is required, either from the lower court or the Court of Appeal itself. The judges of the Court of Appeal are the Lord Chief Justice, the Master of the Rolls and 37 Lords Justices. The United Kingdom Supreme Court was created in October 2009 and replaced the House of Lords as the highest court in the United Kingdom. Decisions made by the Court of Appeal may be further appealed to the Supreme Court (in some civil matters dealt with at the High Court an appeal may be made directly to the Supreme Court). The Supreme Court hears appeals on arguable points of law of the greatest public importance, bearing in mind that the cases will have already been the subject of judicial decision in a lower court. It hears appeals for the whole of the United Kingdom in civil cases, and for England, Wales and Northern Ireland in criminal cases. Additionally, it hears cases on devolution matters. There are 12 Justices of the Supreme Court in total; cases are typically heard by a panel of three to nine of the Justices. The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council is the final Court of Appeal for 23 Commonwealth territories and four independent republics within the Commonwealth. It also hears appeals from the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, and appeals within the UK relating to a small number of matters such as veterinary work and pastoral schemes.