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BRIEFING TO THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON SECURITY AND CONSTITUIONAL AFFAIRS

BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE EXTENSION OF CIVIL JURISDICTION TO THE REGIONAL COURTS BILL

18 JUNE 2008

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THE CIVIL JUSTICE SYSTEM IN SOUTH AFRICA

Civil dispute resolution mechanism

Different civil courts & and status of capacity• Traditional Courts – deal with disputes within traditional communities largely based on

customary law / 800 plus courts presided by senior traditional leaders in six provinces (the fact that there is not monetary jurisdictional limit is some of the flaws of the system which are being addressed through a separate policy process

• Small Claims courts – limited jurisdiction to R7 000 / presided over by Commissioners appointed largely from the legal practitioners

• District Magistrates’ Courts - structured as follows 366 district courts; 50 detached courts;230 periodical courts; 90 Branch courts. Have civil jurisdiction, save for dissolution of marriages

• Three Divorce Courts country- wide which focuses on family law disputes. Jurisdiction of the 3 courts (Southern Divorce Courts, Central Divorce Courts and Eastern Divorce Court cut across provincial boundaries); contrary to dictates of integrated services that led to the Constitution 12th Amendment Act

• Regional Courts with 327 magistrates sit in all seats of the district courts and certain detached and branch courts. These courts don’t have civil jurisdiction

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North Eastdivision

Southern divisionCentral Division

•DurbanCircuits:EmpangeniEshoweNelspruitLebowakgomoNewcastlePietermaritsburgPolokwanePretoriaThohoyandouVryheid

The underlined area is the seat of the Divorce Court

•King Williamstown•Higher delegations Atlantis•Beafort West•Bethlehem, Umtata•Bloemfontein•Cape Town, Worcester•East London•PE•George, Vredendal, Swellendam, Welkom,•Graaf-Reinet•Kayelitsha•Kimberley

• Ferreirasdorp•Circuits:•Klerksdorp•Mmabatho•Mogwase•Odi•Potchefsstroom•Vereeniging•Vryburg•Wolmaranstad

The Registrar of the Courts is stationed at the seat of the Court where all papers must be filed

Each division has 3 Presiding Officers who rotate to all circuits of the division

The structure of the Divorce CourtThe structure of the Divorce Court

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The proposed legislation will remedy the defect of the family

law adjudication system- The structure and capacity of three divisions of the Divorce

Court have remained the same (an average of 3 Presiding Officers for every division). This means for e.g. 3 Presiding Officers attached to the Port Elizabeth division rotate around 19 the areas spread across three provinces of Eastern Cape, Free State and Western Cape There are 3 Presiding Officers for every division. This means for e.g. 3 Presiding Officers attached to the Port Elizabeth division rotate around 19 areas spread across three provinces of Eastern Cape, Free State and Western Cape

- When a litigant consult a legal practitioner outside his/her magisterial district his/her legal practitioner needs to brief a correspondent in the area of jurisdiction of the court – paying two attorneys for the same service

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The proposed legislation will increase access to justice

• The monetary limits of R100 000 for the district courts means there is no “middle layer” where the “middle class claims” would lie (and where the majority of the population will have recourse) (save where there is consent to high jurisdiction)

• The transitional nature of this proposed legislation lies in the fact that ordinary citizens will get access to courts while the court system is being restructured to address the dichotomy – the system cannot withhold service delivery because structural and governance issues, which are equally important, are still being addressed

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Current Civil Court Stats

The District Court Cases reported over a three year period are provided below Table 1: District Court Civil Cases

Region Civil Cases Filed % Population

Gauteng 1 353 031 53% 20,2% Western Cape 436 389 17% 10,1%

Free State 177 874 7% 6,2% Mpumalanga 153 343 6% 7,4%

Limpopo Province 131 089 5% 11,3% Eastern Cape 123 077 5% 14,4% North West 67 795 3% 7,1%

KwaZulu-Natal 63 871 2% 20,9% Northern Cape 51 214 2% 2,3%

Grand Total 2 557 683

100%

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Current Civil Court Stats cont.

Civil Cases Recorded - 2005 to 2007

Eastern Cape5%

Free State7%

Gauteng53%

KwaZulu-Natal2%

Limpopo Province5%

Mpumalanga6%

North West3%

Northern Cape2%

Western Cape17%

Figure 1: Civil Cases Recorded – Years 2005 to 2007 Analyzing the civil workload over a three year period, Figure 3 shows that Gauteng Region had the most (that is 53% (1, 353, 031)) number of civil cases recorded, followed by Western Cape which had 17%. The bulk of the civil cases workload is therefore in Gauteng.

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Current Civil Court Stats cont.

High Court Civil Cases The High Court Civil Cases (in terms of cases placed on the court roll) reported over a three year period (2005-2007) are provided below Table 3: High Court Statistics

High Court Placed on

the roll Settled/Struck off

the roll Heard by Judges

%

Pretoria 25 144 7 863 17 291 48%

Cape Town 7 128 2 793 4 622 13%

Durban 5 253 2 402 2 847 10%

Pietermaritzburg 4 001 2 350 1 582 8%

Bloemfontein 3 248 1 908 1 330 6%

Port Elizabeth 1 849 835 1 005 3%

Umtata 1836 807 735 3%

Johannesburg 1 498 2 434 108 3%

Grahamstown 844 443 401 2%

Mmabatho 722 335 640 1%

Thohoyandou 677 111 560 1%

Kimberley 555 427 122 1%

Bisho 444 297 238 1%

Total

53 199

23 004

31 480

100%

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Current Civil Court Stats cont.Figure 4 below shows that the Pretoria High Court is carrying the most civil cases workload (48%) of the total workload (53199) of cases placed on the court roll. It is followed by Cape Town High Court (13%) and Durban High Court (10%).

High Court Civil Cases - 2005 to 2007

Bisho1%

Bloemfontein6%

Cape Town13%

Durban10%

Grahamstown2%

Johannesburg3%

Kimberley1%

Mmabatho1%

Pietermaritzburg8%

Port Elizabeth3%

Pretoria48%

Thohoyandou1%

Umtata3%

Figure 1: High Court Civil Cases Placed on the Court Roll

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Divorce stats

Table 1: Divorce Court Statistics – Apr’06 to Mar’07 Divorce Court

Final orders granted

Summonses issued

Cases placed on roll

Cases refused

Cases withdrawn or struck from the roll

Cases postponed

Marriages declared null and void

Actual bench hours

Time spent on preparation

Applications

Settlements

Trial cases disposed of

Central 12652 14428 15788 6 1207 2475 1

1537:00:00

516:00:00 1880 3492 31

North Eastern 6634 12849 10968 138 1645 2207 6

1828:00:00

1196:00:00 410 1290 46

Southern 4142 6745 7273 6 1682 855 3

543:00:00

226:00:00 437 746 96

Grand Total 23428 34022 34029 150 4534 5537 10 3908:00 1938:00 2727 5528 173

Divorce Court - Apr'06 to Mar'07

Central 1578847%

North Eastern1096832%

Southern727321%

Figure 1: Divorce Court Cases Placed on the roll – Apr’06 to Mar’07 Figure 2 shows that for the period April 2006 to March 2007, Central Divorce court had the most number (47%) of cases placed on the court roll.

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Current Civil Court Stats cont.

Table 1: Divorce Court Statistics Apr’07 to Nov’07

Divorce Court

Number of final orders

granted

Number of summonses

issued

Number of

cases placed on roll

Number of

cases refused

Number of cases

withdrawn or struck from the

roll

Number of cases

postponed

Number of

marriages declared null and

void

Actual bench hours

Time spent on

preparation Number of

applications Number of

settlements

Number of trial cases

disposed of

Central 8821 8883 12788 0 838 1684 0 999:00 348:00 1752 2830 12

North-Eastern 3942 7652 6683 84 1012 1446 0 1100:15 635:01 199 910 19

Southern 3112 3873 5436 0 1225 804 0 345:00 187:00 402 611 0

Grand Total 15875 20408 24907 84 3075 3934 0 2444:15 1170:01 2353 4351 31

Divorce-Courts Cases Placed on the Roll - Apr'07 to Nov'07

1278851%

668327%

543622%

Central North-Eastern Southern

Figure 1: Cases Placed on the Roll – Apr’07 to Nov’07 51% (12788) of the overall number (24907) of divorce cases placed on the roll are accounted for by Central-Divorce Court. It is clear that Central Divorce court carries the bulk of the divorce courts workload.

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THE AVERAGE STATS OF THE DIVORCE COURT

In the Central Divorce Court an average of 1122 cases per month are registered

• 715 are finalised through settlement outside court

• Only 200 are finalised through trial

• One presiding Officer sit in 8 circuits per month • The Southern Divorce Court sits an average of 2 days

per month in areas across the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Free State

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High Court StatsCivil workload performance

• Bloemfontein:– Out of the 20 cases placed on the roll 20 was heard by a judge at an average waiting period of

2 months before a case could be heard. There are a high number of 1810 outstanding civil cases as on 31/03/2007, which is a cause for concern and must be addressed.

• Cape Town:– Out of the 2105 cases placed on the roll only 1318 was heard by a judge at an average waiting

period of 13 months before a case could be heard. The very high number of outstanding civil cases 6226 as on 31 March 2007 is a great cause for concern and must be addressed.

• Pietermaritzburg:– Out of the 1137 cases placed on the roll only 434 was heard by a judge at an average waiting

period of 17 months before a case could be heard. The very high number of outstanding civil cases (6229) as on 31 March 2007 is a great cause for concern and must be addressed.

• Pretoria:– Out of the 6709 cases placed on the roll only 4146 was heard by a judge at an average waiting

period of 16 months before a case could be heard. The very high number of outstanding civil cases (27260) as on 31 March 2007 is a great cause for concern and must be addressed.

• Durban:– Out of the 351 cases placed on the roll only 182 was heard by a judge at an average waiting

period of 6 months before a case could be heard. The very high number of outstanding civil cases (9514) as on 31 March 2007 is a great cause for concern and must be addressed.

• Johannesburg:– Out of the 120 cases placed on the roll only 15 was heard by a judge at an average waiting

period of 12 months before a case could be heard. The very high number of outstanding civil cases (4707) as on 31 March 2007 is a great cause for concern and must be addressed.

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IMPLEMENTATION PLAN - INCREMENTAL

Getting buy-in

from role players

•Magistrates raised LLB requirement as a limiting aspect towards career mobility for magistrates with civil law experience – matter is dealt with as part of the broad transformation of the judiciary; end of long term act app•Reg Court Magistrates raised concerns on the need re-skill magistrates on practical civil law – it’s a long term objective. In the immediate term additional magistrates will be appointed to deal with the expected increased work load•Judges – want to be actively involved in the implementation, including training programmes – this will achieved through the Judicial Education Institute

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Budget Allocation – R51m for 2008/9

Budget will be used for:

• Creation of 53 posts of Regional Court Magistrates in designated courts. Using the population demographics and case load patterns the suggested case allocation is as follows: (R35m)

EC – 9; FS – 4; Gauteng – 12; KZN – 9; Limpopo – 4; Mpumalanga – 3;

NC -2; NW – 2; WC - 8

• Creation of 43 Regional Court Registrars to be allocated proportionally to all provinces (R12,2m)

• Training for newly recruited magistrates and clerks of court (R5m)

• The re-training of existing Reg Court magistrates on practical civil law will constitute part of the allocation of the Judicial Education Institute

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Integration of Divorce Courts

• Divorce Courts including their existing structures will be integrated into the regional divisions in their provinces of location; structural adjustments and capacity in provinces where they sat in circuits are being phased in as part of the implementation plan

• Main additional capacity will be from magistrates; and structural adjustment to the judicial structures are being discussed with the Magistrates Commission as part of the broader rationalisation of the courts;

• The shift of civil jurisdiction to the regional courts will obviously assist in reducing the workload of the High Courts and the need for such a high number of additional judges.

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THANK YOU

Questions