FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA

ANNUAL REPORT 1996-1997

APPENDIX 6: WORKLOAD STATISTICS

Introduction

The statistics in this appendix provide comparative historical information in relation to the work of the Court, in particular, comparative statistics concerning aspects of the Court’s jurisdiction.

It should be noted that, in this report, the figures reported may be marginally different from figures reported in previous reports. During the year as part of the process of implementation of the Individual Docket System, the Court conducted an audit of its pending caseload. The reasons for the audit were to ensure that the Court could account for all its pending caseload, and could ensure that the management of the inventory would be conducted in a way so that cases would not be delayed beyond the 18 months time goal set by the Court. The audit also identified the number and types of cases which would be likely to be allocated at first instance to Judges’ Individual Dockets.

The audit disclosed a number of matters which had been settled or disposed and had not been so identified by the parties or the Court and consequently the identification of these matters may have affected marginally the statistics of disposed and pending matters in previous reporting years.

During the 1996-97 year several Acts commenced which affected the way the Court recorded the statistics reported on pages 96 to 116.

The Bankruptcy Act was amended by the Bankruptcy Legislation Amendment Act which commenced on 16 December 1996. Many of the administrative functions previously performed by the Registrars in Bankruptcy were transferred to Insolvency and Trustee Service, Australia and the office of Registrar in Bankruptcy was abolished. The functions transferred include the acceptance of debtors’ petitions and issuing of bankruptcy notices. Prior to 16 December 1996 matters under the Bankruptcy Act were recorded in BIOS, a specific bankruptcy database. From 16 December 1996 bankruptcy matters are included in the FEDCAMS database.

The Industrial Relations Act was amended by the Workplace Relations and Other Legislation Amendment Act, including a change of name to the Workplace Relations Act. The jurisdiction of the Industrial Relations Court of Australia was transferred to the Court on 26 May 1997. The effect of this was that matters part-heard in the Industrial Relations Court remained in that Court but 381 other matters were transferred to the Federal Court. New matters under the Workplace Relations Act were commenced in the Federal Court from that date.

The Workplace Relations and Other Legislation Amendment Act also amended the Federal Court of Australia Act by deleting references to the Divisional structure of the Court. For this reporting year matters which would previously have been recorded in the Industrial Division have been recorded in the General Division. For the next reporting year the reference to General Division will be deleted.

For comparative purposes the creditors’ petitions now filed in the FEDCAMS database since 16 December 1996 have not been included for 1996-97 to enable a true comparison with previous years.

The number of creditors’ petitions filed in 1996-97 was 1,925. Creditors’ petitions have been included in relevant graphs that follow.

General Division matters filed 1992-93 to 1996-97 (excluding bankruptcy to 15 December 1996)

The Bankruptcy Act was amended in December 1996 by the Bankruptcy Legislation Amendment Act. Following the amendments, creditors’ petitions and other applications relating to bankruptcy estates are included in the Court’s FEDCAMS database. Previously this information was included in BIOS, a specific bankruptcy database.

Note: (a) For 1996-97, 1,925 creditors’ petitions filed since 16 December 1996 have been included as have 381 industrial matters transferred from the Industrial Relations Court of Australia on 26 May 1997.

General Division matters finalised 1992-93 to 1996-97 (excluding bankruptcy)

Note:	(a)	For 1996-97, 1,925 creditors’ petitions filed since 16 December 1996 and 381
		industrial matters transferred from the Industrial Relations Court of Australia
		on 26 May 1997 are included in the total of 5,780.
	(b)	For 1996-97 the number finalised at 30 June 1997 includes 887 creditors’
		petitions and 35 industrial matters.

General Division current matters 1992-93 to 1996-97 (excluding bankruptcy to 15 December 1996)

A total of 4,669 matters remain current as at 30 June 1997. The age of these are shown in the graph above. In addition, there were 74 matters still current relating to periods before those shown on the graph.