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13 October 2022
I Brown
[FYI request #20295 email]
Our ref: OIA 98535
Tēnā koe I Brown
Official Information Act 1982 request
Thank you for your email sent on 19 August 2022 requesting, under the Official Information Act
1982 (the Act), information relating to case review hearings for criminal cases. Specifically, you
requested:
1. The number of criminal cases that went to case review hearing in the years 2017,
2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021; and
2. The number of criminal cases in total in the years 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and
2021; and
3. The number of cases where case review hearings were adjourned at least once in
the years 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021; and
4. The number of cases where case review hearings were adjourned at least twice in
the years 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021; and
5. The number of cases where case review hearings were adjourned at least three
times or more in the years 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021; and
6. The number of case review hearings that had disclosure issues raised by the
defence on the case management memorandum in the years 2017, 2018, 2019,
2020, and 2021; and
7. The number of case review hearings that were adjourned due to disclosure issues
raised by the defence in the years 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021; and
8. The number of cases where sanctions were imposed upon or awarded against the
New Zealand Police, or an individual Police officer, for delays in providing disclosure
in the years 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021; and
9. A breakdown of the types of sanctions imposed upon or awarded against the either
the New Zealand Police or individual Police officers for delays in providing disclosure
in the years 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 and the numbers of each type
sanction imposed for each year.
In response to part 1 of your request, please refer to Table 1 attached, which provides you with
the number of cases each year from 2017 and 2021 that had a case review hearing.
In response to part 2 of your request, please refer to Table 2 attached, which provides you with
the total number of criminal cases disposed of each year from 2017 and 2021.
I have interpreted parts 3, 4 and 5 of your request as follows:
3. The number of cases where case review hearings were adjourned once in each of
the years 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021; and
4. The number of cases where case review hearings were adjourned twice in each of
the years 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021; and
5. The number of cases where case review hearings were adjourned three times or
more times in each of the years 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021.
Please refer to Table 3 attached, which provides you with the number of case review hearings
that were adjourned once, twice, three times or more, between 2017 and 2021.
In response to parts 6 and 7 of your request, the Ministry of Justice (the Ministry) does not hold
the information you have requested. This information may be held on the court files, but court
information is not subject to the Act as per section 2(6)(a). I am therefore refusing these parts of
your request.
In response to parts 8 and 9 of your request, the Ministry does not hold this information. We
contacted New Zealand Police to see whether these parts of your request should be transferred
to them, but they confirmed they do not hold the information either. Parts 8 and 9 of your
request are therefore refused under section 18(g)(i) of the Act on the grounds that the
information requested is not held by the Ministry.
If you require further information, please contact Joe Locke, Media Manager on 021 636 416, or
email [email address]
If you are not satisfied with this response, you have the right to make a complaint to the
Ombudsman under section 28(3) of the Act. The Ombudsman may be contacted by phone on
0800 802 602 or by email to [email address].
Nāku noa, nā
Bruce Findlay
Acting Group Manager, Courts and Tribunals, Regional Service Delivery
Table 1: Number of cases with a case review hearing, broken down by court and
calendar year from 2017-2021
Court Type
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
District Court
27,615
28,859
28,088
26,543
23,258
Youth Court
136
119
107
112
85
High Court
41
41
67
50
22
Total
27,792
29,019
28,262
26,705
23,365
Notes for Table 1:
• Year is based on the year the case review hearing occurred.
• This data is based on regular reporting datasets, and several business rules have been
applied to remove data with quality issues.
• The numbers for the High Court will generally only apply to Category 4 cases as protocol
cases will have their case review hearings in the District Court before any determination is
made.
• A case is counted once per year. For example, one case that may have had two case review
hearings in the same year is counted once only in that calendar year.
• This data includes cases in the High Court, District Court, and Youth Court.
Table 2: Number of cases disposed of, by court and calendar year from 2017-2021
Court Type
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
District Court
102,992
95,099
90,158
79,572
68,214
Youth Court
2,263
1,927
1,720
1,724
1,428
High Court
170
173
158
146
173
Total
105,425
97,199
92,036
81,442
69,815
Notes for Table 2:
• This data counts criminal cases disposed of in Categories 1 to 4.
• Year is based on the case disposal date.
• High Court numbers include cases that were completed at the Admin/Review/Trial stages in
the District Court and/or Youth Court and transferred to the High Court for sentencing only.
• This data includes cases in the High Court, District Court, and Youth Court.
Table 3: Number of case review hearings that were adjourned once, twice and three
times or more, by calendar year from 2017-2021
Number of adjournments
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
Adjourned once
3,888
4,064
4,113
4,149
4,008
Adjourned twice
852
879
938
1,008
971
Adjourned three times or
314
284
323
364
405
more
Notes for Table 3:
• This data counts cases where case review hearing events were adjourned in the review stage
by number of adjournments.
• Year is based on the last case review hearing date.
• This data is based on regular reporting datasets, and several business rules have been
applied to remove data with quality issue.
• Case review hearings may be adjourned for a variety of reasons attributed to the court,
defence, prosecution, and probation.
• This includes data from the High Court, District Court, and Youth Court.