The Supreme Court delivered 28 publicly available decision on 30 appeals during 2014, allowing 16 appeals – or 53%. This was the same proportion of appeals allowed as the average for the highest courts in New Zealand and the five main English-speaking common law jurisdictions.
Of the six compared jurisdictions, the United States Supreme Court overturned the highest proportion of lower court decisions, allowing 75% of appeals. The Canadian Supreme Court overturned just 36% of lower court decisions.
The US Supreme Court also had the highest number of split decisions, with 46% of the cases where it upheld appeals being decided by majority.
Supreme Court decisions on appeals during 2014
|
Court |
Allowed, |
Allowed, |
Dismissed, |
Dismissed, |
% Allowed |
|
Australia |
23 |
0 |
13 |
4 |
57.5% |
|
Canada |
18 |
5 |
40 |
7 |
35.7% |
|
New Zealand |
10 |
6 |
9 |
5 |
53.3% |
|
United Kingdom |
25 |
7 |
25 |
7 |
50.0% |
|
United States |
37 |
17 |
10 |
8 |
75.0% |
|
Privy Council |
18 |
0 |
17 |
1 |
50.0% |
|
TOTAL |
131 |
35 |
114 |
12 |
53.2% |
During 2014 New Zealand’s Supreme Court declined 96 of the 117 applications for leave to appeal which it decided. This was 82% of all such applications. A relatively high proportion – 40% – of the applications were made by the applicant in person. Of 47 such applications the Supreme Court dismissed 45 and allowed two. Applicants in person also made 21 of the 23 applications to the Court in 2014 for recall of a judgment. The Court dismissed all recall applications.