THE JUDICIAL COMMITTEE OF THE PRIVY COUNCIL, THE HOUSE OF LORDS, THE SUPREME COURT OF JUDICATURE, COUNTY COURTS AND OTHER CIVIL COURTS COMPILED BY THE COUNTY COURTS BRANCH, LORD CHANCELLOR'S DEPARTMENT, HOUSE OF LORDS, S.W.1. Presented by the Lord High Chancellor to Parliament by Command of His Majesty. August, 1928. LONDON: PRINTED AND published BY HIS MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE 15, Donegall Square West, Belfast; or through any Bookseller. 1928. Price 1s. Od. Net. Cmd. 3174. CIVIL JUDICIAL STATISTICS. The total proceedings commenced in all civil courts during the year 1927 are summarised in the comparative table on pages 4 and 5 of this volume. It will be seen from this comparative table that the work of the Appeal Courts and of the High Court (with the exception of Divorce) continued to decline while the amount of business done in the County Courts considerably increased. The number of appeals presented to the House of Lords during the year was 58 as compared with 71 in 1926. Appeals set down in the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Judicature numbered 470, a decrease of 68 from 1926, the number being less than in any year since 1875. Appeals from County Courts under the Workmen's Compensation Act decreased by 36. The total of appeals and special cases entered or filed in the High Court from inferior Courts was 401, an increase of 2 over 1926. Of these cases 200 came from County Courts. The total proceedings commenced in the three Divisions of the High Court showed a decrease of 2.3 per cent. as compared with the preceding year, from 106,738 to 104,246. In the Chancery Division there was a decline of 4.5 per cent. to 6,898, in the King's Bench of 2.9 per cent. to 92,241, while in Probate, Divorce and Admiralty there was an increase of 12·6 per cent. to 5,107, due to the increase in the number of Matrimonial Causes. Divorce work continues to grow, the percentage increase being much the same as in the previous year. The larger part of the increase can again be attributed to the development of the Poor Person's procedure and the power to try at Assizes. The large increase in the number of wives' petitions for Dissolution of Marriage which has resulted from the Matrimonial Causes Act 1923 seems sufficient to account for the remaining part of the general increase, leaving little ground for the view that the Judicial Proceedings (Regulation of Reports) Act 1926 has as yet resulted in any large addition to the number of divorce cases. The number of Matrimonial Petitions filed during the year 1927 was 4,444 an increase of 662 or 17.5 per cent. over the preceding year (3,782). Of the increase 446 were Poor Persons' suits and 216 ordinary causes. The total number of Decrees Nisi for Dissolution of Marriage was 3,740, 1,463 being on husbands' petitions and 2,277 on wives' petitions. Matrimonial Causes to to number of 1,591, of which 935 were Poor Persons' cases, were tried at the eighteen Assize towns exercising this jurisdiction, as compared with 1,125 during the previous year. Additional advantage was taken during the year of the facilities provided, as from 6th April, 1926, for the filing and prosecution of Poor Persons' Matrimonial Suits at certain selected District Registries, twenty-three in number. The number of Petitions so filed during the year was 806, as against 253 for the period 6th April to 31st December, 1926. From Table XVII (page 27) it will be seen that while there was a decrease of 154 to 4,130 in the number of applications by Poor Persons for certificates, there was an increase of 474 or 36.3 per cent. in the number of proceedings commenced during the year, indicating that under the new procedure cases come more quickly to trial than was formerly the case. Of the total applications for certificates nearly 63 per cent. were made to Provincial Law Societies. Matrimonial Causes represent nearly 80 per cent. of the total Poor Persons' cases entered and Poor Persons were successful in approximately 89 per cent. of the cases to which they were parties. The greater part of the information contained in this table has been furnished by the London Committee of the Law Society. The number of proceedings commenced in the County Courts in 1927 was 1,044,300, an increase of 146,405 or 16.3 per cent. as compared with 1926, and the largest number, excluding City of London Court proceedings, since 1913. The stoppage in the coal industry during 1926 caused a considerable decline during that year in the business at Courts within the areas affected and therefore the increase of as much as 16.3 per cent may be regarded as abnormal. Compared with the year 1925 the increase in the number of proceedings in 1927 was 88,526 or 9-3 per cent. The figures indicate that plaints not entered in the year 1926 owing to the stoppage in the coal industry were entered in 1927. It will be observed from Table XX (page 34) that of the plaints entered 4.4 per cent. were for amounts over £20 as compared with 1.5 per cent. in 1913. Of the actions for trial 55.7 per cent. (608,729) were determined without hearing or in Defendant's absence. Of the actions determined on hearing nearly 77 per cent. (28,685) were determined on hearing before a Judge (including 392 before a Judge and Jury) and the remaining 23 per cent. before a Registrar. Jurisdiction was first exercised in County Courts during the year under the Adoption of Children Act 1926 and the Legitimacy Act 1926. The number of petitions filed under the Adoption of Children Act was 235 and the number under the Legitimacy Act was 110. The statistics of Civil Judicial proceedings in England and Wales for years prior to 1922 appeared as Part II of the " Judicial Statistics, England and Wales," prepared by the Home Office, and also in the volume "County Courts (Plaints and Sittings) issued by the County Courts Department of the Treasury. For the year 1922 onwards the Civil Judicial Statistics are published in the form of the attached Tables, compiled in the Lord Chancellor's Department. In the Tables relating to District Registries of the High Court (Table XIII), County Courts (Table XX), Quarter Sessions (Table XXIV), Sheriffs' Proceedings (Table XXV (2)), and Ecclesiastical Courts (Table XXVI), totals are given for the whole service in each case. The figures of individual Registries or Courts may be obtained on application to the County Courts Branch of the Lord Chancellor's Department. The Tables of Proceedings in the Land Registry, and in the office of the Public Trustee which formerly appeared in the "Civil Judicial Statistics, England and Wales," are not now included, as this information is separately published. County Courts Branch, Lord Chancellor's Department, E. C. MARTIN. November, 1928. S.W.1. |