Chief Justice Susan Denham recently welcomed the publication of the Courts Service Annual Report 2012, which included a statistical overview of the work of the courts in 2012. Reflecting on the impact of the Courts Service, the Chief Justice noted that "the courts do not operate in a vacuum, but rather their work can be seen as a reflection of the prevailing climate in our society". 

With this sentiment in mind, the following statistics from the Report are noteworthy:

  • The Supreme Court which has been in the news lately as a result of its significant backlog, had to deal with 21% more appeals in 2012 than in 2011 but also managed to dispose of more appeals, hear more motions and issue more written judgments in 2012.  There was also a 20% increase in appeals from decisions of the Commercial Court. The waiting time for appeals in the Supreme Court increased in 2012 and is now 4 years.  Priority cases had an average waiting time of 9 months.
  • D&O insurers may be interested to note that there was a 50% increase in restriction orders against directors and a staggering 350% increase in disqualification orders made against directors by the High Court.  Appeals to the Supreme Court of Companies Acts cases rose by 138%.
  • Meanwhile the workload of the Commercial Court decreased in 2012 (13% decrease in cases admitted to the List) and it managed to reduce the average period from start to finish for disposal of its cases to 20 weeks. Over 38% of cases admitted to the Commercial List related to summary debt claims.  On average there was an immediate date available for the hearing of a motion seeking entry to the commercial list and no waiting time for the allocation of a trial date.
  • There was also a small decrease in personal injury actions heard before the High Court (7%).    The total sum of €94,554,780 was awarded by the High Court in damages for personal injuries claims in 2012, the smallest award was €5,000 while the largest was €11,500,000.  An additional €17,005,856 was awarded by the Circuit Court for personal injury actions.
  • A total of 232 orders were made for matters relating to the Solicitors' Acts, an 8% increase on 2011.

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