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[email address] | www.justice.govt.nz
10 February 2026
David Farrar
[FYI request #33117 email]
Our ref: OIA 128374
Tēnā koe Mr Farrar
Official Information Act request
Thank you for your email of 3 December 2025 to the Ministry of Justice (the Ministry)
requesting under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act), data relating to criminal trials.
Specifically, you requested:
1. The number of criminal trials held each year, for the last 10 years
2. How many were in the District Court and the High Court
3. How many were judge alone and how many had a jury
On 11 December 2025, the Ministry contacted you to clarify your request under section 15 of
the Act. On the same day, you confirmed that your request could be clarified to provide the
data by calendar year, from 1 January 2015 up to 31 December 2024.
On 21 January 2025, the Ministry contacted you again advising that your request was being
progressed, however, under 15A(1)(b) of the Act, more time was required due to the need
for further consultation.
The Ministry has interpreted your request for ‘criminal trials’ to mean ‘disposed cases where
a trial was involved’. A case is disposed when all charges on the case have an outcome. In
response to your request, please refer to Table 1 attached, which provides the number of
disposed cases where a trial was involved, broken down by court type, case track and year,
between 1 January 2015 and 31 December 2024.
If you require any further information, please contact Media & Social Media Manager Joe
Locke at [email address].
Please note that this response, with your personal details removed, may be published on the
Ministry website at:
Of icial Information Act responses | New Zealand Ministry of Justice.
If you are not satisfied with this response, you have the right to make a complaint to the
Ombudsman under section 28 of the Act. The Office of the Ombudsman may be contacted
by phone on: 0800 802 602, by email at: [email address], or via the
webform:
Make a complaint (for members of the public) | Ombudsman New Zealand.
Nāku noa, nā
Andrea King
Group Manager: Senior, Employment, Environment and Coroners Courts
1982
Table 1: Number of disposed cases where a trial was involved, broken down by court type, case track and year, between 1 January
2015 and 31 December 2024
ACT
Court type
Case track
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
District Court
Judge alone
6,756
7,162
7,675
7,044
6,128
5,684
4,279
4,296
4,062
4,170
Jury trial
996
1,063
1,151
1,147
1,023
754
991
951
1,175
1,194
Total
7,752
8,225
8,826
8,191
7,151
6,438
5,270
5,247
5,237
5,364
High Court
Judge alone
4
2
1
2
2
2
3
2
2
0
Jury trial
67
75
81
78
59
41
72
50
54
61
Total
71
77
82
80
61
43
75
52
56
61
Total
7,823
8,302
8,908
8,271
7,212
6,481
5,345
5,299
5,293
5,425
INFORMATION
Notes for Table 1:
• This data is representative of the national totals for the High Court and District Court (excluding Youth Court).
• A case is counted as involving a trial if it reached the date the trial was expected to begin.
• Cases resulting in hung juries are included in this data.
• Cases with multiple jury trials are only counted once in this data.
• This data was extracted from the Court’s Case Management System on 16 December 2025. Since this is an operational system, data
OFFICIAL
for earlier months may have been updated since any previous publications.
THE
UNDER
RELEASED
