Court of Appeal Workload statistics for 1 January 2020 - 31 December 2020

Court workload

The Court delivered 691 judgments in 2020, compared to 682 in 2019. 

Total new business

The Court’s workload increased in 2020, with a total of 639 appeals and 338 applications filed.  

Appeals

A total of 626 appeals were disposed of, a decrease of 13 compared to the previous year. 

As at 31 December 2020, there were 442 appeals on hand, an increase of 13 compared to the same time last year. 

Applications

Application disposals increased by 2 to 312. 

As at 31 December 2020, there were 129 applications on hand, 26 more than at the same time last year. 

Examples of the types of applications dealt with by the Court include: leave to appeal, bail, name suppression, fresh evidence (civil) and disclosure (criminal) and jurisdictional issues. 

Criminal Jurisdiction

Criminal appeals

A total of 409 criminal appeals were filed in 2020, a decrease of 29 compared to the previous year. 

Criminal appeal disposals increased by 7 to 422. 

As at 31 December 2020, there were 260 criminal appeals on hand, a decrease of 13 compared to the previous year. 

Criminal applications 

The number of new criminal applications filed in the year 2020 decreased by 2 to 139 applications. 

The number of criminal applications disposed of increased by 2 to 137.

As at 31 December 2020, the number of criminal applications on hand increased by 2 to 53 applications. 

Civil Jurisdiction

Civil appeals

The number of new civil appeals filed in the year 2020 increased by 18 to 230 new appeals.  

The number of civil appeals disposed of decreased by 20 to 204. 

As at 31 December 2020, there were 182 civil appeals on hand, an increase of 26 compared to the same time last year. 

Civil applications

The number of new civil applications filed in the year 2020 increased by 36 to 199 applications.  

The number of civil applications disposed of remained the same at 175. 

As at 31 December 2020, the number of civil applications on hand increased by 24 to 76 applications. 

Note
Data is sourced from the Ministry's electronic Appeal Management System (AMS).