Date:

10/15/2007

Purpose
This policy sets out how the Court deals with requests for statistical information and the limitations on the type of statistics the Court can provide.

Application
This policy applies to any person or organisation that is seeking collated information about the Court’s cases.

Assistance provided by the Court
Depending on the impact on its resources, the Court tries to assist with the following types of requests, providing it has reliable statistical data that is suitable for the purpose:
• requests from government agencies associated with law reform and policy development and
• genuine academic research projects that are directly sponsored and supervised by recognised tertiary institutions.

Requests from private individuals or organisations
The Court usually does not assist with information requests from private individuals or organisations. The public must be confident of the Court’s independence from private or commercial concerns. Exceptions may be made if data is needed to meet government requirements or the release of data is in the public interest.

What collated information does the Court hold?
The Court only collates information that is necessary to manage its cases, for example, numeric analysis of the Court’s caseload by case type.

It does not collate information that is not directly related to the management of its cases. For example, while parties to proceedings give their contact details to the Court, this information is not collated. Therefore the Court does not have information about how many litigants live in a particular suburb.

Publicly available information
Each year the Supreme Court publishes its annual review, which contains detailed statistics on the operations of the Court for the last five calendar years. The annual review can be accessed from the web for free, at:
http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/lawlink/supreme_court/ll_sc.nsf/pages/SCO_annrev

Privacy
The Court respects the privacy of people connected to court proceedings. It will generally not release private information about litigants or third parties unless that information is given in evidence in court proceedings.
Permission for publication or further release of data
If the Court provides statistical data, then it must not be published or further released unless there is prior and express permission from the Court.

Making a request
All requests, other than media requests, should be addressed to:
Chief Executive Officer and Principal Registrar
Supreme Court of NSW
GPO Box 3
Sydney NSW 2001

Media requests are to be made directly to the Court’s Public Information Officer, phone (02) 9230 8190.

Other sources of court statistics
Productivity Commission Report on Government Services
http://www.pc.gov.au/gsp/rogs

Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research
http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/bocsar

Australian Bureau of Statistics
http://www.abs.gov.au/

Issued by
J J Spigelman AC
Chief Justice of NSW
On 3 October 2007