The bulk of the Court of Criminal Appeal's work is to determine appeals from proceedings in the Supreme and District Courts challenging convictions and/or seeking to modify sentences imposed at trial.
When determining appeals, the bench is generally comprised of three or more Judges as the Chief Justice directs. Since 1994, a bench of two Judges may hear certain sentence appeals where no issue of principle is disputed.
The Judges who sit in the Court of Criminal Appeal are the Chief Justice, the President and Judges of the Court of Appeal, and the Chief Judge and Judges of the Common Law Division.


ORGANISATION OF BUSINESS

Sittings of the Court are organised on a roster basis, having regard to the regular judicial duties and commitments of those who sit. During 2001, the Court sat during each week of the law term, with two or more benches sitting on some days.
The listing of appeals is fixed by the Registrar who conducts a regular call-over of cases, usually at fortnightly intervals. The Registrar also gives directions for the filing of written submissions and preparation of other material prior to hearings.
Registry staff attend to the processingof all documentation, both prior to and following the hearing of each appeal, as well as maintaining all files and records concerning the operation of the Court.

OPERATIONAL STATISTICS

New filings

An analysis of the types of work coming to the Court during 2001, compared with that in 2000, is given in Table 16.
Total new filings in the Court of Criminal Appeal from 1997 to 2001 are shown in Figure 13.

Figure 13. New filings 1997-2001

Disposals

Table 15 shows an analysis of the types of matters finalised by the Court of Criminal Appeal during 2001 compared with those in 2000. Figure 14 shows total finalisations for the years 1997 to 2001.

Pending caseload

During 2001, the Court sat for 233 days, compared with 189 during 2000, representing an increase of 23 per cent. This enabled the Court to dispose of a higher number of appeals in comparison with 2000. However, this increase in disposals was offset by an eight per cent increase in the number of new filings, resulting in a two per cent increase in the pending caseload over the year. The pending caseload as at the end of 2001 is analysed in Table 17 and compared with that for 2000. Revised sitting arrangements planned for 2002 will focus on additional listings during nominated periods to achieve a sizeable reduction in the number of outstanding appeals.
The trend in the pending caseload over the last five years is shown in Figure 15.

Time standards

Performance against the standards set for 2001 is set out in Table 18. The time standards for 2001 will also apply during 2002.
The ability of the Court to achieve its time standards is adversely affected by delays in other parts of the criminal justice system. Criminal appeals are generally filed immediately after the first instance trial. Indeed, section 10 of the Criminal Appeal Act 1912 requires an appeal to be filed within 28 days of conviction or sentence. Few cases are ready to take hearing dates when the appeal is filed. Most appeals require legal aid. An assessment of merits is made before legal aid is granted. Before that assessment can occur, the transcript must be prepared and the summing up to the jury and/or remarks on sentence settled by the trial Judge. It sometimes takes months for this to occur. Thereafter the assessment process may often result in an amended notice of appeal being filed. The measurement of time taken to dispose of criminal appeals starts from the date of filing the original notice of appeal, even though for many months the Court would not have been able to set down the matter for hearing, for the reasons given above.
All of the above factors continued to operate during 2001. There were times during the year when there was an insufficient number of cases ready for hearing and the Court had to cancel some weeks of scheduled sittings.

Other Aspects

During the year a Court of Criminal Appeal and Crime Registry Users' Group was established to consider issues relating to criminal cases and criminal appeals, including factors contributing to delay in the Court of Criminal Appeal. There are a number of government agencies whose processes affect criminal appeal preparation time. Members of the users' group are reviewing internal and inter-agency processes to identify areas for improvement and some positive steps have already been taken within agencies.
In December 2001 Parliament passed amendments to the Criminal Appeal Act 1912, specifically altering the provisions of section 10. It is expected that the amendments will be proclaimed to commence in the first half of 2002. The Court has proposed amendments to the Criminal Appeal Rules in conjunction with the legislative changes.
The amendments to the Criminal Appeal Act and proposed amendments to the Rules will substantially change the procedure for initiating appeals against conviction and applications for leave to appeal against severity of sentence. It is envisaged that most of the tasks that presently contribute to delay will be attended to before a notice of appeal can be filed, thus facilitating a more streamlined and faster listing process. It is also anticipated that circumstances that, in the past, have typically led to appeals being abandoned will, in the future, be dealt with before a notice of appeal can be filed.
The Court is not able to predict what effect the new Rules will have in terms of achievable time standards and has decided not to set time standards for 2003 until the impact of the amendments is assessed.


Table 15. Disposals

Type of appeal/application	2000	2001
Conviction and sentence	181	171
Severity only	270	297
Crown appeals	87	62
Abandonments	250	265
Section 5A appeals*	1	3
Section 5F appeals**	31	24
Stated cases	6	5
Summary dismissals	81	89
Applications by Attorney General	0	0
Parole Board applications	0	7
Total number of disposals	907	923

* Section 5A of the Criminal Appeal Act 1912 refers
to submissions of questions of law.
** Section 5F of the Criminal Appeal Act 1912 refers to
appeals from interlocutory judgments or orders.

Table 16. New filings

Originating jurisdiction and appeal/application type	2000	2001
Supreme Court	63	67
Conviction and sentence	34	33
Severity only	17	26
Crown appeals	5	8
Section 5F appeals	7	0
Land and Environment Court	3	7
Conviction and sentence	0	4
Severity only	1	1
Crown appeals	0	1
Stated cases	2	0
Section 5F appeals	0	1
District Court	795	851
Conviction and sentence	216	220
Severity only	473	510
Crown appeals	77	84
Section 5A appeals	1	1
Section 5F appeals	27	32
Stated cases	1	4
Applications by Attorney General	0	1
Local Court	1	8
Section 5F appeals	1	8
Parole Board	5	6
Applications	5	6
Total number of filings	867	940

Table 17. Pending caseload (as at 31 December)

Status	2000	2001
Awaiting delivery of reserved judgment	10	34
Fixed for hearing	160	111
Awaiting listing	580	622
Total pending appeals	750	767