Specialist Courts and Tribunals

Employment Court

New business has reduced over the past year and the court has been able to dispose of more cases than it has received. As a result, the number of active cases on hand for the Employment Court has decreased again from 163 cases at the end of June 2011 to 154 at the end of the financial year. Cases continue to be more complex due to the changes to the Employment Relations Act 2000 and Holidays Act 2003 in April 2011. For example, some cases which were previously heard at the Employment Relations Authority are now heard in the Employment Court; as yet this change has not affected the court’s overall caseload.

Environment Court

There were 499 cases filed with the Environment Court in 2011/12, which is 18% lower than 2010/11. Before 2010/11, the court has dealt with an average of about 800 cases per year. The continued decline in appeal cases filed reflects both the current lower level of resource consent applications filed at council level and the irregular nature of plan and policy review work initiated by councils across New Zealand. The court has disposed of 801 cases, which in turn has seen the number of active cases decrease from 1,130 in June 2011 to 905 at the end of June 2012.

Coronial Services

There has been an increase of 3% in referrals to the Coroner, with 6,023 referrals in 2011/12 compared to 5,848 in 2010/11. The number of cases resolved was 5,638, which was 2% below target. The redirection of resources to support the identification of victims of the Christchurch earthquake in February 2011 and the distribution of cases from the Canterbury region to other areas during the recovery period affected national case disposal rates.

Māori Land Court

New applications received by the court increased by 5% in 2011/12 compared with 2010/11, with 5,987 cases received. There has been a focus on trust reviews in 2011/12, where the court has contacted Trusts to provide advice on, for example retention of land, or title and ownership details which then prompts a Trust to make an application to the court to ensure legal requirements are appropriately in place. This has generated a number of additional applications. The court disposed of 5,521 cases in 2011/12, compared to 5,611 in 2010/11. The slight decrease in disposals is because there have been a number of complex applications heard by the court this year, which required additional hearing time and resourcing.

Tribunals and Authorities

The Tenancy Tribunal accounts for approximately 60% of new business for tribunals and authorities (excludes Disputes Tribunal figures, which are reported separately). New business has increased by 11% since 2010/11, due to an increase in the jurisdictional limit of the Tenancy Tribunal from $12,000 to $50,000 as a consequence of the Residential Tenancies Amendment Act, which came into effect in October 2010. There were 21,801 applications to the Tenancy Tribunal in 2010/11 compared to 24,489 in 2011/12. The Unit Titles Act 2010 also came into force in June 2011 but has had little impact on the Tribunal’s workload.

The Private Security Personnel Licensing Authority (the Authority), established under the Private Security Personnel and Private Investigators Act 2010, represents 22% of new business for tribunals and authorities. The Authority, which began operating in April 2011, replaced the Private Investigators and Security Guards Registrar. The Act established a new regime for security guards, private investigators, businesses, and crowd controllers to provide more stringent checks and controls for the industry.

All companies and individuals working in the security industry must apply to the Authority for a licence. In the first three months of operation there were over 11,000 applications for licences and certificates. In 2011/12 new business has slowed, as expected, and there were 8,733 applications. The Authority has disposed of 11,504 applications.

The Immigration and Protection Tribunal (IPT) was established in November 2010 and represents approximately 3% of the tribunals and authorities’ new business. The IPT received 1,398 cases during 2011/12, which was 18% higher than forecast. A total of 962 cases were disposed during 2011/12 and there are now 1,135 cases on hand, which includes cases transferred from the authorities the IPT replaced.

Disputes Tribunal

Compared to the 2010/11 financial year, the 2011/12 financial year has seen a

• 8% decrease in new and reactivated claims to 16,602
• 11% decrease in the disposals of claims to 16,664
• 2% decrease in the number of active claims to 3,325

Statistics