Supreme Court

Supreme Court

The Supreme Court is New Zealand’s final court of appeal.  It deals with criminal and civil appeals from the lower courts.  The Supreme Court must grant leave before an appeal can begin.

The number of applications for leave to appeal filed in the Supreme Court decreased between June 2011 and September 2012. However, from October 2012 there has been a steady increase in the number of applications for leave to appeal.

In the 12 months ended 31 December 2013:

• 42 new appeals were filed, (up from 20 in the previous 12 months)
• 16 separate judgments disposed 17 appeals and one appeal was abandoned (compared to the previous 12 months where 22 separate judgments disposed 24 appeals and a further three appeals were abandoned).

As at 31 December 2013 there were 34 active appeals (awaiting hearing or judgment) compared with 10 as at 31 December 2012.

Statistics