The courts dealt with 770,000 matters last year, a slight drop on 2003. However, the number of cases dealt with by the Supreme Court and High Courts increased.
The figures also show that more than half the total budget of the Courts Service, €97 million, was covered by the €49 million it took in in fines and fees.
The number of divorces granted increased, showing a rise of 21 per cent over five years, while the number of judicial separations remained steady. The number of rape and murder cases fell.
This is the fifth full year of the operation of the Courts Service and each year until now has seen a growth in the volume of its work. There are also reductions in the waiting time for most trials, with trials in the Central Criminal Court now being heard within 10 months, compared with more than two years in 2001. Cases are being disposed of in the Commercial Court in an average of six weeks.
The number of rape and murder cases received by the Central Criminal Court fell by 23 and 28 per cent respectively between 2003 and 2004, though the number of cases disposed of grew by 84 per cent. This was due to the allocation of additional judges to this court, which now has four judges sitting regularly, sometimes six.
The Supreme Court dealt with 725 appeals last year, more than doubling those dealt with the previous year, which was 304. It received 531, up 20 per cent. However, the Court of Criminal Appeal saw a drop of 23 per cent in the number of cases it dealt with.
In the area of criminal law, there was a 70 per cent reduction in new rape cases between 1999 and 2004. In the Circuit Court, jury trials were up by 11 per cent and the number of guilty pleas fell slightly. Between it and the Central Criminal Court, there were 432 jury trials, involving 5,184 jurors.
The bulk of criminal cases are tried in the District Court, where the total fell slightly over the year. This was mainly accounted for by a fall of 23,000 in the number of road traffic offences, which make up the bulk of District Court criminal cases. However, public order and minor assault cases were up and almost doubled to 10,194 between 2001 and 2004.
In the High Court, the most dramatic increase in its work was in the area of judicial reviews of asylum cases. These numbered 1,381 in 2004, up from 723 in 2003.
There was also a significant increase in personal injuries cases in the High Court, up from 11,245 in 2003 to 15,293 last year.
The bulk of these came in the first seven months of the year, before the Personal Injuries Assessment Board came into operation. Of these, 7,074 plenary summonses were issued in the five-day period preceding the introduction of the procedure, compared with 8,074 in the previous six months. Personal injuries actions made up about 80 per cent of the civil actions in the High Court, which totalled just under 20,000.
The effect of the PIAB was also seen in the Circuit Court, where 30,000 civil bills were issued by the end of July 2004, compared with 41,181 for the whole of 2003.
In terms of personal injuries awards made, a sample of 492 judgments showed that about 40 per cent fell into the €38,000 to €99,999 category, while a similar number were under that.
Forty-two were €100,000- €200,000, 47 were €200,000-€1 million, while there were 19 judgments of more than €1 million.
The High Court Taxing Master's office saw a doubling of the amount of fees both claimed and allowed between 2003 and 2004. In 2003 €33 million was claimed in fees and more than €24 million allowed, while in 2004 almost €68 million was claimed and almost €49 million allowed.