Youth court duration twice as long as adult case

From first hearing to the final disposal, it took 12 weeks at Craigavon, while the average is around five weeks for adult cases at the same court.

According to the NI Court Service figures for the last quarter of 2012, it took five weeks from a summons being issued until the first hearing of a youth case.

And it took an average of eight and a half weeks from the first hearing of a youth case to it finally being disposed of.

However, in the adult cases it took around almost five weeks from summons to first hearing and just over five weeks from first hearing to finding.

In the civil courts at Craigavon, it took more than 16 weeks to deal with cases from start to finish. However, the NI average in civil courts for the same period was just over seven and a half weeks.

Craigavon Court dealt with 10% of all adult cases in Northern Ireland in the final three months of 2012.

Adult cases at Craigavon on average lasted just over three hours and 21 minutes.

The court also dealt with around 11% of youth cases.

Quarterly reports for October, November and December 2012 show that Craigavon dealt with 8% of civil applications.

And it transpired that Craigavon Court sat for 31 days for adult criminal cases during that period.

There were six youth criminal days sitting at Craigavon lasting an average two hours and five minutes.

And there were 14 family days lasting around three hours and 32 minutes.

A total of 28 youth defendants were brought before Magistrates Court in that period with 32 youth cases disposed of.

In total 728 adult criminal defendants were received in Craigavon magistrates’ court with 741 defendants’ cases disposed of.

Craigavon also heard 53 civil applications relating to domestic proceedings and violence. And it the last quarter 73 such cases were disposed of.