Report on Government Services 2021

The primary support functions of court administration services are to:

• manage court facilities and staff, including buildings, security and ancillary services such as registries, libraries and transcription services
• provide case management services, including client information, scheduling and case flow management
• enforce court orders through the sheriff’s department or a similar mechanism.

Court support services are reported for the State and Territory supreme, district/county and magistrates’ (including children’s) courts, coroners’ courts and probate registries, and for the Federal Court of Australia, the Family Court of Australia, the Family Court of WA and the Federal Circuit Court of Australia.

The High Court of Australia, tribunals and specialist jurisdiction courts (for example, Indigenous courts, circle sentencing courts, drug courts and electronic infringement and enforcement systems) are excluded.

State and Territory court levels

There is a hierarchy of courts within each State and Territory (see figure 7.1). Supreme courts hear disputes of greater seriousness than those heard in the other courts. Supreme courts also develop the law and operate as courts of judicial review or appeal. For the majority of states and territories, the hierarchy of courts is as outlined below (although Tasmania, the ACT and the NT do not have a district/county court):

• supreme courts (includes probate)
• district/county courts
• magistrates’ courts (includes children’s and coroners’ courts).

Differences in State and Territory court levels mean that the allocation of cases to courts and seriousness of cases heard varies across states and territories (further information about court levels is contained in the Courts interpretative material).

Australian court levels

Australian courts hear and determine civil matters arising under laws made by the Australian Government. The hierarchy of Australian courts (see figure 7.1) is as follows:

• the High Court of Australia
• the Federal Court of Australia and the Family Court of Australia
• the Federal Circuit Court of Australia.

Detailed information about the Federal Court of Australia, the Family Court and the Federal Circuit Court is available in the Courts interpretative material.

Figure 7.1 Major relationships of courts in Australia ^a,b

^a In some jurisdictions, appeals from lower courts or district/county courts may go directly to the full court or court of appeal at the supreme/federal level; appeals from the Federal Circuit Court can also be heard by a single judge exercising the Federal/Family Courts’ appellate jurisdiction. ^b Appeals from federal, State and Territory tribunals may go to any higher court in their jurisdiction.

Nationally in 2019-20, total recurrent expenditure by Australian, State and Territory courts in this Report was $2.14 billion (table 7.3). Expenditure in some states and territories is apportioned (estimated) between the criminal and civil jurisdictions of courts so caution should be used when comparing criminal and civil expenditure across states and territories.

Total recurrent expenditure less court income, for the Australian, State and Territory courts in this Report was $1.76 billion in 2019-20 (tables 7A.14−15). Court income is derived from court fees, library revenue, court reporting revenue, sheriff and bailiff revenue, probate revenue, mediation revenue, rental income and any other sources of revenue (excluding fines). The civil jurisdiction of courts accounts for the vast majority of income received (table 7A.13).

Cost recovery and fee relief in the civil courts

Court fees are mainly collected in civil courts and in some jurisdictions are set by government rather than court administrators. The level of cost recovery from the collection of civil court fees varies across court levels and states and territories. Nationally, almost one-quarter of costs in 2019-20 were recovered through court fees in the Supreme/Federal courts, 33 per cent in the District courts and 25 per cent in the Magistrates’ courts (table 7A.16). Cost recovery tends to be low in the children’s courts — in these courts many applications do not attract a fee.

Most courts in Australia are able to waive or reduce court fees to ameliorate the impact on vulnerable or financially disadvantaged parties (fee relief). Table 7.4 shows that the proportions of total payable civil court fees which were waived or reduced were highest in the Northern Territory Magistrates' court (29.5 per cent) followed by the Family Court of Western Australia (26.0 per cent) and the Federal Court of Australia (22.7 per cent).

Fee exemptions are also available in some courts — this is usually where legislation exists to exempt particular categories of fees from being payable. Fee exemptions are more common in the Federal courts than State and Territory courts (table 7A.19).

During 2019-20, approximately $33.0 million of civil court fees were either waived, reduced or exempted and therefore not recovered by courts (table 7A.19).

Staffing

Descriptive information on the numbers of judicial officers and full time equivalent staff can be found in tables 7A.28–30.

Lodgments

Lodgments are matters initiated in the court system and provide the basis for court workload as well as reflecting community demand for court services (see tables 7A.1–2 for further information).

State and territory courts

Nationally, there were 766 775 criminal lodgments registered in the supreme, district/county, magistrates’ and children’s courts in 2019-20 (table 7A.1) compared with 410 595 civil lodgments (table 7A.2). An additional 79 833 probate matters were lodged in the supreme courts (table 7A.2). Lodgments were higher in the criminal courts than civil courts across all states and territories (figure 7.2). In the coroners’ courts, there were 26 059 deaths and 160 fires reported, with numbers varying across jurisdictions as a result of different reporting requirements (table 7A.2). There were an additional 15 875 lodgments in the Family Court of WA.

Most criminal and civil matters in Australia in 2019-20 were lodged in magistrates’ courts (see figure 7.2). The number of lodgments per 100 000 people can assist in understanding the comparative workload of a court in relation to the population of the State or Territory (see tables 7A.3 (criminal) and 7A.4 (civil) for data by State and Territory).

Australian Government courts

In 2019-20 there were 4469 lodgments in the Federal Court of Australia, 21 507 lodgments in the Family Court of Australia and 95 896 lodgments in the Federal Circuit Court (table 7A.2).

Finalisations

Finalisations represent the completion of matters in the court system so that they cease to be an item of work for the court. Each lodgment can be finalised only once. Matters may be finalised by adjudication, transfer, or another non‑adjudicated method (such as withdrawal of a matter by the prosecution or settlement by the parties involved)¹.

Most cases that are finalised in the criminal and civil courts do not proceed to trial. Generally, cases that proceed to trial are more time-consuming and resource-intensive. In the criminal courts the proportions of all finalised non-appeal cases that were finalised following the commencement of a trial in 2019-20 varied from two to 67 per cent in the supreme courts and from six to 16 per cent in the district courts. Proportions in the magistrates' courts were generally lower still (State and Territory court authorities and departments, unpublished).

State and territory courts

In 2019-20, there were 663 440 criminal finalisations in the supreme, district/county, magistrates’ and children’s courts and 404 153 civil finalisations in these courts (tables 7A.5–6). All state and territory court levels experienced reductions in criminal finalisations in 2019-20. The pattern of finalisations across states and territories (figure 7.3) is similar to that of lodgments, but lodgments will not equal finalisations in any given year because not all matters lodged in one year will be finalised in the same year. There were an additional 26 153 cases finalised in the coroners’ courts and 16 168 cases finalised in the WA Family Court (table 7A.6). The number of finalisations per 100 000 people is available in tables 7A.7–8.

Australian Government courts

In 2019-20 there were 4871 cases finalised in the Federal Court of Australia, 21 235 cases finalised in the Family Court of Australia and 90 665 cases finalised in the Federal Circuit Court (table 7A.6).

Lodgments and finalisations in criminal courts — Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

The proportions of all criminal non-appeal matters lodged and finalised in the Supreme, District, Magistrates’ and Children’s courts involving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander defendants, show that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are overrepresented in the criminal courts relative to their representation in the community (table 7.5). Indigenous status is based on self-identification by the individual who comes into contact with police, with this information transferred from police systems to the courts when the defendant’s matter is lodged in the courts. Data for criminal courts are presented for six jurisdictions (NSW (data are available for the Supreme Court only), Queensland, WA, SA, the ACT and the NT). For other jurisdictions data on Indigenous status is either not available or not currently considered to be of sufficient quality for publication.

Finalisations in civil courts – applications for domestic and family violence protection orders

Domestic and family violence matters² are generally dealt with at the magistrates’ court level. Applications for protection orders are civil matters in the court while offences relating to domestic and family violence (including breaches of violence orders and protection orders) are dealt with in criminal courts. Protection orders are the most broadly used justice response mechanism for addressing the safety of women and children exposed to domestic and family violence (Taylor et al. 2015).

In 2019-20, across all magistrates’ courts approximately 33 per cent of all finalised civil cases involved applications for domestic and family violence-related protection orders (excludes interim orders and applications for extension, revocation or variation) (table 7.6). Proportions varied across states and territories.

The Family Court of Australia and the Federal Circuit Court do not issue family violence protection orders. Rather, the Family Court must consider and take action on notices of child abuse or risk of family violence when considering final order cases. Following a broadening of the definition of family violence in the Family Law Act in 2012, the number of notices filed in the Family Court each year increased up until 2018-19. In 2018-19, the proportion of final order cases in which a notice of child abuse or family violence or risk of family violence was filed was 35.7 per cent (Family Court of Australia annual report, 2018-19).

1. For the purposes of this Report, civil non-appeal lodgments that have had no court action in the past 12 months are counted (deemed) as finalised. The rationale for this is to focus on those matters that are active and part of a workload that the courts can progress. A case which is deemed finalised is considered closed — in the event that it becomes active again in the court after 12 months it is not counted again in this Report. Locate Footnote 1 above
2. While ‘domestic’ and ‘family’ violence are distinct concepts, the former referring to violence against an intimate partner and the latter referring to broader family and kinship relationships, the terms are often used interchangeably and their definitions generally incorporate both domestic and family-related violence. Locate Footnote 2 above

ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) 2020, Criminal courts, Australia, 2018-19 , Cat. no. 4513.0, Canberra.

Family Court of Australia annual report 2018-19, www.familycourt.gov.au/wps/wcm/connect/fcoaweb/reports-and-publications/annual-reports/2018-19/2018-19-annual-report-toc (accessed 20 November 2019).

Taylor, A., Ibrahim, N., Wakefield, S. and Finn, K. 2015, Domestic and family violence protection orders in Australia: An investigation of information sharing and enforcement, State of knowledge paper Issue 16, Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety, Sydney.