This
the Judge in charge of the companics and bankruptcy lists.
appears to be a sensible arrangement which should be evaluated and I
therefore do not recommend any further change at this stage.
26.
A Single Civil Court
One of the more radical suggestions has been that the civil
business of the High Court and District Court should be merged in a new
civil court. Such en idca often comes as a surprise but it has
advantages. In llong Kong from 1st January to 31st October 1986 the
numbers of civil action filed were 10,246 in the High Court and 38,191 in the District Court making a total of 48,437. The numbers set down for trial in the same period were 378 and 2,572 - a total of 2,950. A ratio of that sort persists year after year.
Rather less than one
sixteenth of the caseload comes before judges.
of the rest some come
up for interlocutory hearings and all the others are dealt with in the
office. Public convenience might, therefore, benefit from access to
only one pre-trial system and only one post-trial or enforcement
system. There might also be advantage in a uniform procedure. And
there would be economy of scale in office staffing.
27.
This court would be manned by the present High Court and
District Court benches. The Masters would be in charge of the Registry and the handling of interlocutory disputes. They might need a body of
assistants to help with the simpler matters.
28.
There would be rules and directions to govern the
distribution of cases for trial between High Court and District Judges
and a discretion in the Masters and their assistants to decide at what
level a particular case should be heard. This would meet the criticism
that arbitrary monetary categorisation does not necessarily lead to the appropriate level of judicial expertise. It would also enable Judges' of either court to be flexibly assigned to the middle tier of cases in
accordance with demand.
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