Report on Government Services 2016

The focus of this chapter is the court administration functions of Australian and State and Territory courts. Data are reported for the Federal Court, the Family Court of Australia and the Federal Circuit Court, the criminal and civil jurisdictions of the supreme courts (including probate registries), district/county courts, magistrates' courts (including children's courts), coroners' courts and the Family Court of WA.

• In 2014-15, in the criminal jurisdiction of the supreme, district/county, magistrates' and children's courts, approximately 890 300 cases were lodged, and 918 900 cases were finalised.
• In the civil jurisdiction of these same courts approximately 442 300 cases were lodged and 457 400 cases finalised.
• In the Australian courts, approximately 120 600 cases were lodged, and approximately 114 000 cases finalised.

Total court administration recurrent expenditure less income (excluding fines) by the court authorities covered in this chapter was approximately $1.37 billion in 2014-15, comprising $1.14 billion for the State and Territory courts and $228.2 million for the Australian courts.

Courts aim to:

• be open and accessible
• process matters in an expeditious and timely manner
• provide due process and equal protection before the law
• be independent yet publicly accountable for performance.

In addition, all governments aim to provide court services in an efficient manner.

The performance indicator framework provides information on equity, efficiency and effectiveness, and distinguishes the outputs and outcomes of courts. The performance indicator framework shows which data are complete and comparable in the 2016 Report.

An overview of the Courts performance indicator results are presented. Information to assist the interpretation of these data can be found in the indicator interpretation boxes in the Courts chapter and attachment tables.

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Legend

^a Caveats for these data are available in Chapter 7 and Attachment 7A. Refer to the indicator interpretation boxes in chapter 7 for information to assist with interpreting data presented in this table.

^b These data are derived from detailed data in Chapter 7 and Attachment 7A. na Not available.

.. Not applicable.

– Nil or rounded to zero.