Specialist Courts and Tribunals

Specialist Courts and Tribunals

Employment Court

There were 181 new cases filed in the Employment Court in the 2015/2016 financial year, compared to 151 cases filed in 2014/2015.  The Court cleared more cases than were received, with 197 disposals. The number of active cases reduced slightly from 109 to 107 over the past year.

Environment Court

Filing trends have increased, with 424 appeals filed in the year ending 30 June 2016, which is 8% higher than the previous year (394). This increase in the number of new appeals is a result of several plan reviews that attracted a large number of appeals to the Environment Court.

The Court disposed of 428 cases in the 2015/2016 financial year, compared with 420 in 2014/2015 financial year.  The number of active cases increased by 8%, from 372 at 30 June 2015 to 400 at 30 June 2016.

Coronial Services

There has been a 3% decrease in referrals to the Coroner, with 5,564 referrals in the 2015/2016 financial year, compared to 5,748 in 2014/2015.  

The number of cases resolved has increased by 2%, with 5,572 cases resolved in 2015/16 compared with 5,471 in the 2014/15 financial year.

The number of active cases has increased slightly from 3,150 to 3,161 as at 30 June 2016.

Māori Land Court

There were 6,055 new cases filed in the court in the 2015/2016 financial year. This is an increase of 10% from the 5,526 new cases filed in the 2014/15. Over the same period, the volume of cases disposed increased by 7% from 5,525 cases in 2014/15 to 5,887.

The number of active cases in the Māori Land Court has increased by 4% from 4,149 cases as at 30 June 2015 to 4,314.

Tribunals and Authorities

Tenancy Tribunal

The Tenancy Tribunal accounted for 59% 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 slightly with 19,055 applications lodged in the 2015/2016 financial year, compared to 19,095 in the 2014/2015.

The tribunal disposed of 19,062 cases in the 2015/2016 year, a 1% decrease in disposals compared to 19,219 the previous year. 

The number of active cases on hand at 30 June 2016 was 421 which is slightly lower than 430 at 30 June 2015.

Private Security Personnel Licensing Authority                    

The Private Security Personnel Licensing Authority represented 26% of new business for tribunals and authorities in the 2015/2016 financial year.

In the 2015/2016 financial year there were 8,389 applications filed, a 31% increase compared to 2014/2015, when there were 6,403 applications. The Authority disposed of 9,294 applications in 2015/2016, a decrease of 2% compared to the previous year where 9,529 applications were disposed. 

The number of active applications at 30 June 2016 is 3,234, which is slightly lower than 4121 at 30 June 2015.

Immigration and Protection Tribunal

The Immigration and Protection Tribunal (IPT) represented approximately 4% of the tribunals and authorities new business in the 2015/2016 financial year. The IPT received 1,189 cases during this time, a decrease of 11% compared to the previous year when there were 1,342 cases received.

A total of 1482 cases were disposed during the financial year 2015/16 compared to 1,503 disposals in the previous financial year.

In 2015/2016 the clearance rate is 1.2, which has resulted in the number of active cases decreasing by 31% from 919 cases as at 30 June 2015 to 630 a year later.

Disputes Tribunal

Comparing the 2015/2016 to 2014/2015 financial years the Disputes Tribunal has seen a:

• 6% decrease in new claims to 13,341
• 9% decrease in the disposals of claims to 13,460
• 3% decrease in the number of active claims to 3,063 as at 30 June 2016

Statistics