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Table 7A.8
NSW Vic Qld (b) WA SA Tas ACT NT Aust cts Total
Finalisations, civil (a)
Non-appeal
2013-14 7 315 6 542 5 304 4 476 2 769 .. .. .. .. 26 406
2012-13 7 661 6 207 5 951 4 414 2 758 .. .. .. .. 26 991
2011-12 8 096 6 146 5 973 5 189 3 144 .. .. .. .. 28 548
2010-11 7 869 5 749 5 048 5 060 3 109 .. .. .. .. 26 835
2009-10 8 101 5 521 5 006 4 046 2 573 .. .. .. .. 25 247
Total
2013-14 7 496 6 685 5 361 4 581 2 975 .. .. .. .. 27 098
2012-13 7 854 6 335 6 014 4 533 2 927 .. .. .. .. 27 663
2011-12 8 339 6 351 6 044 5 308 3 181 .. .. .. .. 29 223
2010-11 8 031 5 881 5 116 5 168 3 136 .. .. .. .. 27 332
2009-10 8 320 5 648 5 108 4 141 2 614 .. .. .. .. 25 831
Magistrates’ courts
Magistrates’ courts only (excl. children's courts) (f), (g)
2013-14 142 646 103 022 56 744 51 971 27 395 7 707 3 955 6 974 .. 400 414
2012-13 146 072 106 204 53 866 50 662 26 367 8 404 3 758 7 003 .. 402 336
2011-12 149 319 105 913 53 048 50 333 27 107 8 909 3 661 6 418 .. 404 708
2010-11 162 134 106 784 60 040 54 162 26 820 9 460 3 341 5 826 .. 428 567
2009-10 162 107 102 491 73 766 53 720 27 222 9 846 3 612 6 176 .. 438 940
Children's courts (h)
2013-14 8 800 6 089 3 609 2 634 1 118 277 119 432 .. 23 078
2012-13 8 798 6 241 3 921 2 757 1 256 423 119 367 .. 23 882
2011-12 8 900 5 687 3 549 1 619 1 275 440 102 319 .. 21 891
2010-11 8 414 4 943 3 798 1 540 1 236 443 156 313 .. 20 843
2009-10 7 556 4 455 3 669 1 459 1 239 425 160 377 .. 19 340
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Table 7A.8
NSW Vic Qld (b) WA SA Tas ACT NT Aust cts Total
Finalisations, civil (a)
Total magistrates' courts (incl. children's courts)
2013-14 151 446 109 111 60 353 54 605 28 513 7 984 4 074 7 406 .. 423 492
2012-13 154 870 112 445 57 787 53 419 27 623 8 827 3 877 7 370 .. 426 218
2011-12 158 219 111 600 56 597 51 952 28 382 9 349 3 763 6 737 .. 426 599
2010-11 170 548 111 727 63 838 55 702 28 056 9 903 3 497 6 139 .. 449 410
2009-10 169 663 106 946 77 435 55 179 28 461 10 271 3 772 6 553 .. 458 280
All civil courts (excl. the family courts, the Federal Magistrates Court and the coroners' courts)
2013-14 169 073 122 749 69 588 61 556 32 745 9 076 4 741 7 638 5 611 482 777
2012-13 175 186 126 239 68 044 60 778 31 856 9 872 4 739 7 668 6 556 490 938
2011-12 178 816 126 614 68 025 60 478 32 978 10 431 4 826 7 027 5 798 494 993
2010-11 188 636 124 800 75 925 63 509 32 519 10 903 4 534 6 442 4 648 511 916
2009-10 191 363 120 798 89 728 62 067 32 443 11 356 4 805 6 821 3 519 522 900
Family courts (i), (j), (k), (l) Appeal
2013-14 .. .. .. 32 .. .. .. .. 349 381
2012-13 .. .. .. 28 .. .. .. .. 333 361
2011-12 .. .. .. 33 .. .. .. .. 332 365
2010-11 .. .. .. 26 .. .. .. .. 325 351
2009-10 .. .. .. 30 .. .. .. .. 345 375
Non-appeal
2013-14 .. .. .. 15 571 .. .. .. .. 19 338 34 909
2012-13 .. .. .. 15 563 .. .. .. .. 18 040 33 603
2011-12 .. .. .. 14 992 .. .. .. .. 17 682 32 674
2010-11 .. .. .. 15 059 .. .. .. .. 18 516 33 575
2009-10 .. .. .. 12 947 .. .. .. .. 19 069 32 016
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Table 7A.8
Federal Circuit Court (i), (j), (k)
2013-14 .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 89 000 89 000
The counting unit for finalisations is the same as for lodgments (Table 7A.3). In general a civil case is considered finalised at the date on which all matters pertaining to a file are regarded as formally completed by the court and the file ceases to be an active unit of work to be dealt with by the court. In the civil jurisdiction, (with the exception of appeals heard in the Supreme and District courts, the Federal Court of Australia, and all matters finalised in the Family court of Australia), cases may be deemed finalised if there is no action on a file for more than 12 months. From 2007-08, the Family Court of WA has deemed cases finalised if there has not been a court event for at least 12 months.
In Queensland, legislative changes from 1 November 2010 amended the monetary jurisdictional limits for each court level. Finalisations in Queensland courts are not comparable to previous years by court level.
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Queensland Children's Court data for civil cases is based on a count of cases, not the number of children involved in the care and protection case.
Family Court of Australia data do not include instances where its registrars are given delegation to conduct Federal Circuit Court divorce applications, or when conducting conciliation conferences on Federal Circuit Court matters. These services are provided free of charge to the Federal Circuit Court. The Family Court of Australia does not deem a matter finalised even if it has not had a court event for at least 12 months as this is not consistent with its case management practices.
The Federal Court of Australia has not applied the rule where a case is deemed to have been finalised if there is no action on a file in the last 12 months.
Family Court of Western Australia civil finalisations data between the financial years 2009-10 and 2011-12 were revised following a review of the data extraction processes, which revealed some discrepancies in the counting rules used to extract the data. These discrepancies have now been addressed to bring the data extraction process in line with the counting rules. Data for the reference periods prior to 2009-10 should not be used to undertake comparative analysis.
In the ACT, since 2 February 2009, small claims up to $10 000 are no longer lodged with the Magistrates Court (they are now lodged with ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal).
The number of civil cases lodged, finalised and pending as at 30 June 2010 in the Queensland Magistrates Courts decreased due to the introduction of the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) on 1 December 2009. In the Magistrates Courts outside the South East Queensland region,
magistrates are still responsible for hearing these civil cases, in addition to other disputes lodged with QCAT, such as cases including guardianship, anti-discrimination and children services, which are not within the scope of this report. Data prior to 2009-10 are not comparable.
The introduction of the Federal Magistrates Court (now Federal Circuit Court) has had implications for the Family Court of Australia and the Federal Court lodgment time series. The Family Court of WA does elements of Family Court of Australia and Federal Circuit Court work, so direct comparisons need to be made with caution. In November 2003, a practice direction was issued by the Family Court of Australia requiring all divorce applications to be lodged in the Federal Circuit Court. However, a small number of divorce applications were still lodged and processed in the Family Court of Australia. Bankruptcy matters processed by the Federal Court on behalf of the Federal Circuit Court were previously included in Federal Court data but have been excluded for 2009-10 and 2008-09. These matters are included in Federal Circuit Court data.
WA District Court civil finalisations data between the financial years 2009-10 and 2011-12 were revised following a District court review and subsequent change to business practices related to the management of the court's civil inactive case list. Data for the reference periods prior to 2009-10 should not be used to undertake comparative analysis.
Data quality auditing by the Tasmanian Supreme Court during 2011-12 identified a number of revisions to be made in previous years' figures.
The Supreme Court of Victoria: (1) On 28 October 2010 the Workcover (Litigated Claims) Legal Costs Order 2010 came into operation. The Legal Costs Order governs costs in relation to serious injury applications lodged pursuant to section 134AB of the Accident Compensation Act 1985 (Vic). Taxations are no longer necessary for this category of cases. (2) On 1 April 2013, Rule 63.20.1 of the Supreme Court (General Civil Procedure) Rules 2005 came into operation. The rule prohibits the taxation of costs in interlocutory applications prior to the completion of the proceeding, unless the court otherwise orders. A large number of "small bills" previously taxed by the Costs Court arose from interlocutory orders.
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Table 7A.8
NSW Vic Qld (b) WA SA Tas ACT NT Aust cts Total
Finalisations, civil (a)
(m) (n)
na Not available. .. Not applicable.
Source: Australian, State and Territory court administration authorities and departments (unpublished).
Prior to 2009-10 WA Coroners Court lodgment data were compiled by a manual process of counting lodgments and only included the metropolitan area. In 2009-10 the WA Coroners Court implemented a new reporting system utilising WA Coroners Court data stored in the National Coroners Information System which now includes WA state-wide data. Data since 2005-06 have been revised to reflect this change.
NSW, Victoria, Tasmania and the ACT include data on the finalisation of reported fires. Queensland included this data until 1 December 2003.
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