Guardianship applications made up 30% of all substantive Family Court applications filed in the year to 30 June 2019, the Ministry of Justice reports.
Information released by the ministry shows that there were 17,953 guardianship applications out of a total of 60,587 applications. The guardianship applications related to the Care of Children Act 2004 (excluding Hague Convention) and were mostly applications for parenting orders.
The next most frequent Famiy Court case types in the 2018/19 year were related to care or protection under the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989, making up 18% of applications. These were followed by applications for dissolutions/divorce of marriage or civil unions (14% of all applications) and applications related to family violence (13%).
Substantive Family Court applications filed, year to 30 June
| Case type | 2019 | 2019 % | 2018 | 2018 % |
| Guardianship | 17,953 | 29.6% | 18,640 | 30.8% |
| Oranga Tamariki | 10,775 | 17.8% | 9,994 | 16.5% |
| Dissolution | 8,440 | 13.9% | 8,522 | 14.1% |
| Family violence | 8,044 | 13.3% | 8,231 | 13.6% |
| Mental health | 7,132 | 11.8% | 7,077 | 11.7% |
| PPPR | 4,902 | 8.1% | 4,742 | 7.8% |
| Property | 1,692 | 2.8% | 1,718 | 2.8% |
| Family proceedings | 532 | 0.9% | 559 | 0.9% |
| Adoption | 362 | 0.6% | 343 | 0.6% |
| Child support | 207 | 0.3% | 249 | 0.4% |
| Miscellaneous | 196 | 0.3% | 173 | 0.3% |
| Estates | 185 | 0.3% | 172 | 0.3% |
| Hague | 117 | 0.2% | 100 | 0.2% |
| Substance addiction | 50 | 0.1% | 32 | 0.1% |
| TOTAL | 60,587 | 100.0% | 60,552 | 100.0% |