Specialist Courts and Tribunals

Specialist Courts and Tribunals

Employment Court

There were 151 new cases filed in the Employment Court in the 2014/2015 financial year, 14% less than the 184 cases filed in 2013/2014.  The Court cleared more cases than was received, with 207 disposals. The number of active cases on hand has been reduced by 33% from 163 to 109 over the past year.

The decline in new cases filed in the Employment Court is a result of the changes that have been made to the Employment Relations Act which has seen fewer personal grievances coming through the Employment Relations Authority and into the Employment Court.

Environment Court

Filing trends have increased, with 394 appeals filed in the year ending 30 June 2015, which is 24% higher than the previous year.

This increase in the number of new appeals filed over the past year is a result of several plan reviews that attracted a large number of appeals to the environment court.

The Court disposed of 420 cases in the 2014/2015 financial year, compared with 681 in 2013/2014 financial year.  The number of active cases has been reduced by 7%, from 399 at 30 June 2014 to 372 at 30 June 2015.

Coronial Services

There has been an 8% increase in referrals to the Coroner, with 5,748 referrals in the 2014/2015 financial year, compared to 5,298 in 2013/2014.  

The number of cases resolved has slightly fallen, with 5,471 cases resolved in 2014/15 compared with 5,524 in the 2013/14 financial year.

The increase in referrals to Coronial Services, combined with the fall in the volume of cases resolved has resulted in the number of active cases on hand to increase from 2,833 to 3,150 as at 30 June 2015.

Māori Land Court

There were 5,526 new cases filed in the court in the 2014/2015 financial year. This is a decrease of 6% from the 5,853 new cases filed in the pervious year. Over the same period, the volume of cases disposed fell by 14% from 6,393 cases in 2013/14 to 5,525.

With cases being filed and disposed of in equal numbers in the 2014/15 year, there has been little change in the number of active cases on hand in the Māori Land Court, with 4,149 cases on hand as at 30 June 2015 (compared with 4,162 active cases at 30 June 2014).

Tribunals and Authorities

Tenancy Tribunal

The Tenancy Tribunal accounts for 64% of new business in the tribunals and authorities administered by the Ministry of Justice (excluding Disputes Tribunal figures, which are reported separately).  New business decreased by 11% with 19,095 applications lodged in the 2014/2015 financial year, compared to 21,533 in 2013.

The tribunal disposed 19,219 cases in the 2014/2015 year, a 16% decrease in disposals compared to 22,818 the previous year.  The decrease in disposals reflects the decrease in new business, with the clearance rate in 2014/2015 over 100%.  This led to the number of active cases on hand at June 30 2015 falling by 22%.

Private Security Personnel Licensing Authority               

The Private Security Personnel Licensing Authority represented 21% of new business for tribunals and authorities in the 2014/2015 financial year.

In the 2014/2015 financial year there were 6,404 applications, a 50% increase compared to 2013/2014, when there were 4,259 applications. The Authority disposed of 9,529 applications in 2014/2015, an increase of 179% compared to the previous year where 3,418 applications were disposed.  These large increases in applications and disposals are due new legislative requirements to provide evidence of training which came into effect 1 October 2014, three months into the latest reporting period, as well as the jurisdiction of the PSPLA being extended to include repossession agents as of March 2015.

Immigration and Protection Tribunal

The Immigration and Protection Tribunal (IPT) represented approximately 4% of the tribunals and authorities new business in the 2014/2015 financial year. The IPT received 1,342 cases during this time, an increase of 6% compared to the previous year when there were 1,265 cases received.

A total of 1,310 cases were disposed during the 2014 year financial year compared to 1,371 disposals in the previous financial year.  The Tribunal’s new operating model has enabled it to manage the workload despite the increase in new business.

There are now 919 cases on hand as at 30 June 2015, 15% less than the 1,080 that were on hand at the same point 12 months earlier.

Disputes Tribunal

Comparing the 2014/2015 to 2013/2014 financial years the Disputes Tribunal has seen a:

• 8% decrease in new cases to 14,263
• 1% decrease in the disposals of cases to 14,737
• 12% decrease in the number of active cases to 3,142 as at 30 June 2015

Statistics