The Daily. Thursday, February 7, 2002

Case processing in criminal courts

Adult criminal courts are handling fewer cases, but the level of workload of these courts is increasing, according to a new study of the court system. Cases are taking longer to process, largely because they are becoming more complex.

In 1999/2000, adult criminal courts in the seven provinces and two territories that participated in the study processed 378,600 cases, down 4% from 1998/99 and down 13% since 1995/96. These cases in 1999/2000 involved 811,400 charges.

However, a better indicator of court activity is the number of court appearances because it relates directly to the consumption of court resources. Since 1995/96, the total number of appearances heard has risen 3%, and the average number of appearances for the most serious offence in the case has jumped 14%. In 1999/2000, the most serious offence took 4.8 appearances, compared with 4.2 in 1995/96.

This has led to an increase in the time it has taken to process cases. Courts in 1995/96 took a median elapsed time of 77 days to complete a case. By 1999/2000, that had increased 9% to 84 days.

The more complex the case, the longer it took to resolve. In 1999/2000, courts took a median of 105 days to resolve cases in which an adult faced three or more charges, compared with only 74 days for a case involving a single charge. The percentage of cases involving three or more charges rose from 18% to 21% from 1995/96 to 1999/2000.

In 1995/96, only 8% of cases took more than 52 weeks to resolve. In 1999/2000, 10% of cases took more than a year.

Cases involving a preliminary inquiry had a median elapsed time of 233 days, three times as long as the 77 days taken to complete cases without a preliminary inquiry. Similarly, the median processing time for cases decided through a trial process was 150 days, double the 77 days for non-trial cases.

In youth courts, the median time to complete a case declined from 69 days in 1995/96 to 63 in 1999/2000. The number of cases heard decreased 8% over this same period. In 1999/2000, youth courts processed 102,000 cases.

The type of offence had a significant impact on the amount of time needed for completion in youth court. In 1999/2000, cases involving a crime against an individual took a median elapsed time of 104 days to complete, compared with only 64 days for cases involving a property offence.

Note: Adult criminal court statistics for 1999/2000 were originally released in The Daily on May 16, 2001. Youth court statistics for 1999/2000 were originally released in The Daily on May 30, 2001. This Juristat presents a more detailed analysis.

Juristat: Case processing in criminal courts, 1999/2000, Vol. 22, no. 1 (85-002-XIE, $8/$70; 85-002-XPE, $10/$93) is now available.

For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact the Information and Client Services Unit (1-800-387-2231; 613-951-9023), Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics.