Supreme Court of Canada Statistics: 1996-2006

The Supreme Court of Canada has just released a Special Edition of its Bulletin of Proceedings containing a statistical overview of activities for the period 1996-2006.

It is broken down into the following sections:

• Cases Filed: "The total of 513 cases filed in the year 2006 is approximately 15% lower than the annual average number of cases filed over the last decade".
• Applications for Leave Submitted: "number of leave applications submitted to panels of the Court for decision, the number of leave applications granted and the percentage granted of the total submitted... In 2006, there were 506 leave applications filed with the Court and 477 submitted to panels of the Court for decision. The total number of leave applications submitted to the Court for decision in 2006 is 17% lower than the number submitted in 2005. The average time lapse between the filing of a leave application and the judgment of the Court is 8% lower".
• Appeals Heard: "In 2006, the Court heard 80 appeals over 56 hearing days. The number of appeals heard was 12% lower than the average number of appeals heard over the previous ten years".
• Appeal Judgments: "The Court released 79 judgments in 2006. Of these, 4 were pronounced from the bench ('oral judgments'), with no written reasons to follow. In 80% of the judgments, all judges agreed in the result of the appeal".
• Average Time Lapses: "in 2006, the time between the filing of a complete application for leave to appeal and the Court’s decision on whether leave should be granted or denied was 3.4 months. In 2006, appeals were heard, on average, 7.7 months after leave was granted or the notice of appeal as of right was filed. In 2006, the Court rendered judgment, on average, 5.9 months after the hearing of an appeal. This figure includes oral judgments. The average time lapse between the hearing of the appeal and the delivery of reasons (including cases where judgment was reserved and where judgment was rendered with reasons to follow) was 6.2 months, consistent with the time lapse in 2005".