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statistikk
2011-10-27T10:00:00.000Z
Social conditions, welfare and crime
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The courts and other dispute resolution bodies - StatRes (discontinued)2010

The statistics has been discontinued.

Content

About the statistics

Definitions

Name and topic

Name: The courts and other dispute resolution bodies - StatRes (discontinued)
Topic: Social conditions, welfare and crime

Responsible division

Division for Income and social welfare statistics

Definitions of the main concepts and variables

Own production: Defined as the costs that an activity has and which are used to carry out activities and produce services. In principle, this consists of wage costs, the purchase of goods and services and capital costs. Data for capital costs, i.e. depreciation and imputed interest as a result of tied capital, is not available for most of the activities included in StatRes, including the courts and the other dispute resolution bodies. Capital costs are not therefore included in the calculation of the amount for own production. Since the activities within the sub-area only rent the premises that they use, the costs for depreciation and tied capital are probably so marginal that the lack of data is of little significance to the calculation of own production. The basis for the amount is items 1-29 in the national accounts.

Wage costs are defined as the total remuneration payable to the employees, including social security contributions. Reimbursements are subtracted. In addition, for some enterprises an estimated amount, due to lack of pension contributions to the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund, is included in the wage costs, see Data sources and sampling under Production.

Estimated premium to the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund: The activities within The courts and other dispute resolution bodies do not pay pension premiums directly to the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund, where the employees are members. These premiums, together with similar premiums for a number of other public sector activities, are instead paid in a collective transfer from the treasury to the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund. As these premiums are not included in the reported wage costs, the reported wage costs show a lower level than is actually the case. A 15 per cent mark-up is therefore applied to the reported wage costs (excluding reported employer’s NI contributions), which roughly corresponds to the level by which direct paying activities charge to their accounts. A corresponding mark-up is also applied in StatRes for all activities that do not have costs for pension premiums included in their accounts.

Purchase of goods and services: Includes the value of used intermediate products and services in the production. The starting point for the size is reported amounts in item 1-29, sub-post 21-29, ref. circular 101.

Transfers: Covers subsidies and other money transfers to the private and local government sector, i.e. items 60-79 in the national accounts. The basis for the amount is the book amount for these items.

Investments: Acquisitions and major maintenance work in connection with property, or major acquisitions of assets with a long-term value. The starting point for the size is reported amounts in item 30-49, ref. circular 101. Any revenues from corresponding sales are deducted.

Own production in NOK per capita: The amount for own production in NOK divided into average population in the statistics year. This average is calculated by adding the number of inhabitants in Statistics Norway’s official population statistics at the start and end of the statistics year and dividing the total by two.

Input measured in contracted man-years adjusted for long term leaves:

Contracted man-years adjusted for long term leaves is defined as the sum of the number of full-time jobs and part-time jobs converted to full-time equivalents, excluding man-years lost due to doctor-certified absence and parental leave.

Activities and services and results:

Processed cases: All cases that have been processed in the relevant instance during the year of the statistics. Each case can have numerous defendants and where this is the case will be registered as one case.

Criminal cases:A criminal case is a case between a person who has allegedly committed an offence and the State (via the prosecuting authority). Where the prosecuting authority does not wish to take legal action, the aggrieved party can, in certain cases, bring a private prosecution. This seldom happens. The statistics on the courts’ processed criminal cases includes both criminal cases with verdicts on the question of guilt and sentencing and criminal cases in connection with investigations (imprisonment, custody, searches, communication control etc.). The case is first processed in the District Court, then where necessary in the Court of Appeal, and finally in the Supreme Court.

Civil cases: The court’s job in civil cases is to resolve legal disputes between two or more parties. The rights and duties of parties with regard to each other and the authorities are determined in civil cases.

Processing time: The average processing time refers to the processing time of cases that have been processed and concluded during the relevant period.

Court of first instance: The courts of first instance are mainly the District Courts in Norway. Legal proceedings for all prosecution trials and civil actions are initiated in the District Court. The District Court is also the appellate body for decisions by the Conciliation Board.

Each District Court covers its own geographic area. This is known as a judicial district, and is made up of one or more municipalities. Oslo has two courts of first instance; Oslo City Court and Oslo Office of the City Recorder. The Oslo Office of the City Recorder mainly processes cases concerning provisional security, compulsory orders, bankruptcies, debt settlements and administration and division of joint ownership cases and deceased persons’ estates, in addition to notarial acts, including performing marriages. With regard to the rest of Norway, the District Court processes all types of cases. As of 1 January 2010, there are a total of 67 courts of first instance in Norway (all the District Courts plus the Oslo Office of the City Recorder).

Court of second instance: The Court of Appeal is the ordinary court of second instance, and processes appeals against decisions by the courts of first instance and appeals against individual decisions by the land consolidation courts and land appeal courts. In addition, the Court of Appeal is the court of first instance for judicial reviews of decisions by the National Insurance Appeals Council. Norway has six courts of appeal, and these cover their own geographically defined jurisdiction, which is known as a judicial district. The Court of Appeal is headed by a senior presiding Court of Appeal judge, who normally acts jointly with one or more presiding judges. The ordinary judges are known as appellate court judges.

Supreme Court: The Supreme Court is the highest court in the land and is the appellate body for all decisions made by the Court of Appeal. There is only one Supreme Court in Norway and this is located in Oslo. The decisions that are made here are final, pursuant to the Constitution of Norway, and carry no right of appeal. However, two special exceptions apply to cases that can be taken to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, and the United Nations Human Rights Committee in Geneva.

Before a case can be processed in the Supreme Court, it must first be dealt with by three Supreme Court judges in the Appeals Selection Committee of the Supreme Court. The Appeals Selection Committee is part of the Supreme Court and replaced the former selection committee known as &“kjæremålsutvalg´´ in Norwegian (which was a court in its own right). This change came into force on 1 January 2008, cf. the new Dispute Act of Norway. The Appeals Selection Committee makes a broad assessment of such aspects as the fundamental characteristics of a case. This forms the basis for the decision on whether consent is given to submit the case to the Supreme Court. The Selection Committee further acts as a relief instance, and can make final decisions in certain types of cases.

The Supreme Court judges serve on the Selection Committee according to a rota system.

Land Consolidation Court: The Land Consolidation Court is a special court that deals with cases founded on the Land Consolidation Act (Norway). Its work mainly relates to property conversions, facilitating cooperation across property boundaries, clarifying the legal status of real estate, determining property boundaries and various assessments.

The Land Consolidation Court is a court of first instance, and Norway as 34 such courts. Appeals against decisions and legal resolutions made in the first instance may be lodged to the Court of Appeal, while the Land Appeal Court is the appellate body for matters relating to land consolidation, among other things.

Land Appeal Court: The Land Appeal Court is the appellate body for cases dealt with in the Land Consolidation Court. The right of appeal to the Court of Appeal from the Land Appeal Court is limited. As a general rule, appeals may be lodged against matters of procedure and points of law to the Court of Appeal, cf. Section 71 of the Land Consolidation Act.

Disputes: A dispute is a civil dispute between private parties. Disputes are normally initiated in the Conciliation Board. One judge is normally appointed for disputes in the District Court, unless the parties request two associate judges, or if the court finds this appropriate.

Single-judge cases: The term "single-judge case" is used in connection with criminal cases dealt with by a judicial judge, in addition to a court witness who is present. Examples of single-judge cases are cases where the defendant makes an unreserved confession (summary trial on a plea of guilty), and cases in connection with investigations (imprisonment, custody, searches, communication control etc.).

Composite court in the District Court : In criminal cases dealt with in a main hearing, the court normally has one judicial judge as the presiding judge and two associate judges. The associate judges are selected by drawing lots from the municipal committee of associate judges. In cases of crimes that, according to the law, can carry a prison sentence of more than six years, the chief justice may decide that the court should sit with two judges and three associate judges.

Appeals against rulings in civil cases: When appeals against rulings in civil cases are processed in the Court of Appeal, the court has three judges and four in the special cases as defined in the Dispute Act (Sections 9-12 and 29-17). The parties may request that two jurors are also assigned to the court, and in cases where specialist knowledge is required, the court may appoint associate judges with specialist knowledge in the area that the case relates to.

Limited appeal professional judges : This is described in the court system as trial by judge and comprises appeals against matters of procedure, points of law or punishment given (not the issue of guilt) in cases where the maximum sentence is six years’ imprisonment. The court sits with three judges.

Limited appeal in composite court : Appeals against matters of procedure, points of law or punishment given (not the issue of guilt) in criminal cases where the sentencing framework is imprisonment of more than six years. The court sits with three judges and four jurors, cf. Section 332 of the Criminal Procedure Act.

Full appeal in composite court : Appeals relating to the assessment of evidence in the question of guilt in criminal cases where the maximum sentence is six years’ imprisonment. The court deals with both the question of guilt and penal sanctions, and sits with three judges and four jurors.

Full appeal jury case : These are known as jury cases in the court system and comprise appeals related to the question of guilt in criminal cases where the sentencing framework is imprisonment of more than six years. The court sits with three judges and a jury, which consists of 10 jurors, cf. Section 352 of the Criminal Procedure Act. The jury determines the question of guilt. Their decision is normally final, but may be overruled by the judges in special cases. The punishment is set by the three judges together with the chairman of the jury and three other jury members who are selected by drawing lots.

Penal sanctions given in court: The statistics include all legally binding penal sanctions with no right of appeal concluded in the court, which are registered during the year that the statistics apply to. The main types of penal sanctions are fines, unconditional or conditional imprisonment, community sentence and special sanctions (preventive detention, compulsory mental health care and compulsory care). Since the individual sanction is regarded as a unit, a person who is given a sanction several times in the course of the year will be included in the statistics the same number of times as they receive a sanction.

Category of offence: A standard that divides offences into two areas; crimes and misdemeanours. A crime is a legal offence of a more serious nature than a misdemeanour. Crimes and misdemeanours pursuant to the General Civil Penal Code are covered in sections 2 and 3 of the legislation. Legal offences described in other legislation are, according to Section 2 of the General Civil Penal Code, crimes with a sentencing framework of more than three months’ imprisonment, unless otherwise specified. The remainder of legal offences are misdemeanours.

In addition to the difference in the degree of seriousness of misdemeanours and crimes, the procedure is simpler for misdemeanours than for crimes. With regard to misdemeanours, the police decide whether charges should be made or not, while this is determined by the public prosecutor for crimes. Misdemeanours can, to a greater degree than crimes, be resolved with a ticket fine. When processing misdemeanours, no defence counsel is normally required. Certain violations (e.g. damage of property and some special laws) can in law be classed as both crimes and misdemeanours. Whether the relevant action is regarded as a misdemeanour or crime is specified in the statistics that use the standard for Type of offence. For a further description, see Standard classifications.

Group of offence: A standard that divides the offences into up to 10 main groups. The standard is used by both Statistics Norway and the police, but some statistics use the standard to only group crimes. For a further description, see Standard classifications.

Standard classifications

The population is based upon the Central Register of Establishments and Enterprises’ (BoF), units that are classified as a central government enterprise. The institutional grouping of the economy into sectors is a standard that is based on recommendations for the National Account structure, provided by the United Nations. Norway’s institutional grouping of sectors is based on the Eurostat’s ESA 1995 , which recommends that each country should design their own sector structure which is adapted to the nation’s distinctive characteristics. The central government is a sub-sector within the general government.

Expenditure is classified by the structure of the national account, which broadly corresponds with the definitions in IMF's Government Finance Statistics Manual 2001 ( GFSM2001 ). The expenditure is classified into groups, based on whether it is related to the enterprise’s own production of service, transfers in cash or in kind, or investments. In a few cases, the definitions are deviated for the purpose of a more realistic picture of the use of resources.

 

Administrative information

Regional level

Only national figures.

Frequency and timeliness

Annual.

International reporting

Personnel figures have been specially prepared for The Courts And Other Dispute Resolution Bodies – StatRes, and can be used for reporting to international bodies such as the UN.

Microdata

Not relevant

Background

Background and purpose

The aim of StatRes is to develop and disseminate statistics and indicators of a high quality on resource input, activities, services, production and results of public sector activities. Public sector activities in this context are limited to central government. StatRes is pivotal to the development of statistics on the public sector, and aims to represent a framework for further developing the statistics that cover central government.

Users and applications

The country's inhabitants, as electors and citizens, are a key target group. The media, justice sector and researchers are also key user groups.

Coherence with other statistics

The indicators StatRes is based on must be viewed in the context of SSB's statistics on this areea.

Input measured in contracted man-years:

Statistics Norway does not publish other particular statistics on employment in the central The courts and other dispution bodies, but the employees are included in Statistics Norway’s general register-based employment statistics where the employees and their contracted working hours are only counted in the enterprise where the employee performs her/his main position. StatRes also includes second jobs, in addition to 1) inclusion of employees more than 74 years old, 2) inclusion of employees on a short-term stay in Norway and 3) subtraction of doctor-certified absence and parental leave.

Legal authority

Statistics Act § 2-1, 2-2, 3-2 (Questionnaires/registers).

EEA reference

Not relevant.

Production

Population

The statistics are defined as covering the ordinary courts, conciliation boards, mediation boards, land consolidation courts and the Norwegian Criminal Cases Review Commission, see also Data sources and sampling. Related activity in the State that is not covered by these statistics includes the court-related parts of the prosecuting authorities’ work, the Norwegian Civil Affairs Authority (the State’s liability for compensation), State compensation to victims of violent crime and bankruptcy proceedings. The indicators for activities/services and results in this first-time publishing are limited to selected parts of the courts’ work.

Data sources and sampling

The different indicators are taken from various sources:

Input measured in NOK: The accounting figures for most of the published units are based on data reported to the Norwegian Government Agency for Financial Management (SSØ) in connection with the preparation of the state accounts (Report no. 3 to the Storting). Independent accounts for activities that are not covered by the state accounts are also used.

Input measured in contracted man-years: Register-based employment statistics in Statistics Norway are based on individual register data from various registers. Information related to employees and agreed working hours per week is mainly collected from the Nav State Register of Employers and Employees, the End of the Year Certificate Register, the Tax Register (the Directorate of Taxes), and payroll registers. The Central Coordinating Register for Legal Entities in Brønnøysund and Statistics Norway’s Central Register of Establishments and Enterprises provide data on industries and sectors for enterprises and underlying establishments. NAV’s register of participants in labour market initiatives, recipients of parental benefits and doctor-certified absence are also included. The employment statistics is therefore based on a number of different sources. Statistics Norway has developed a system for common utilization of these sources. Work is currently underway to ascertain the degree of input using overtime.

Activities and services and results:

Basic data on the indicators from Statistics Norway are retrieved from the Central criminal record and police information system (SSP) and the Central register for fines (BOT). SSP is the national register for the registration of convicted persons. Convictions are registered in one section of the register and police information is registered in another. The section covering convictions contains penal sanctions imposed, and has a legal basis in Section 1 of the Act relating to criminal registration. BOT is administered by the individual police stations and contains all fines imposed by writ or a court ruling, and withdrawals of charges for misdemeanours.

Basic data for the indicators for the ordinary courts in the first and second instance are retrieved from the case processing system LOVISA. LOVISA is both a specialist system and an administrative system. Within the specialist system, LOVISA supports the case processing in all types of cases within civil, criminal and special proceedings, from the time the case is registered in LOVISA until a legally binding decision has been made in relation to the case and it is ready for archiving. Where an appeal is lodged with the Court of Appeal, the case is transferred electronically from the District Court to the Court of Appeal. LOVISA is used by judges, magistrates and case handlers.

Basic data for the indicators for the Supreme Court are retrieved from the case processing system Høyrett. Høyrett supports the case processing in all types of cases within civil, criminal and special proceedings, and comprises the duties of judges, magistrates and those reviewing and processing cases. Support is provided all the way from registration of an incoming case, via preparation and execution of court sessions, to legally binding decisions. There is no communication between Høyrett and LOVISA.

Basic data for the indicators for the land consolidation courts are retrieved from their case processing systems. The portfolio includes modules for case processing, accounts, timesheets, logging, archiving, office administration and a personnel database.

Total counting.

Collection of data, editing and estimations

The data basis for the indicators is taken from a number of different external sources, see Data sources and sampling.

Revision:

Input measured in NOK: Indicators based on accounting data are compared to the corresponding figures in the Central Government's fiscal account and the other transmitted accounts. Wage costs are compared with the contracted man-years and Statistics Norway’s wage statistics. In addition, tests on reasonableness and controls on macro level are performed.

Input measured in contracted man-years: The three most central registers concerning production of the statistics follow this procedure for control and revision: The Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration conducts an annual control of the NAV State Register of Employers and Employees. Statistics Norway controls that enterprises with more than one establishment have separate numbers for each, and that the employees are registered with the correct establishment. Statistics Norway also controls the NAV State Register of Employers and Employees by comparing it with the End of the Year Certificate Register etc. Some kinds of errors are also corrected directly in the basic data for the employment statistics. Further, the contracted man-years adjusted for long-term leaves are checked against the wage costs mentioned above, in addition to the basic data for the wage statistics from payroll registers.

Estimations:

Resource input measured in NOK: Resource input measured in NOK is calculated in the same way as for other areas of activity in StatRes, where the accounts data sent from the Government Agency for Financial Management forms the data source. The calculations are made as follows:

- The chapters in the national accounts that correspond to the organisational units within the relevant area of activity are identified. For courts and other dispute resolution bodies, the amounts in the following chapters form the basis for the calculations: 61 Supreme Court, 410 District Courts and Courts of Appeal, 411 National Court Administration, 413 Land Consolidation Courts, 414 Conciliation Boards and other Judicial Expenditure, 466 Special Criminal Case Expenditure etc., 468 Norwegian Criminal Cases Review Commission, 470 Legal Aid Office and 474 Mediation Boards.

The figures in these chapters are grouped and summarised based on the Ministry of Finance’s directive 101 (R101), and on the variables that are published within resource input measured in NOK.

Any charges that the activities have incurred in chapters other than the foregoing are identified and the respective amounts are added to the figures that are specified in the aforementioned point.

- Non-reported pension premiums to cover the pension obligations of the employees are added to reported wage expenses. As an estimate for these obligations, 15 per cent of reported wages are used, excluding employer’s NI contributions.

- Recognised wage reimbursements are reclassified as wage reductions, i.e. deducted from the reported wage expenses.

Input measured in contracted man-years:

Contracted man-years adjusted for long term leaves, is estimated by Statistics Norway as the number of full-time jobs and part-time jobs calculated as full-time equivalents adjusted for doctor-certified sickness absence and parental leave. Man-years are estimated as a percentage of ordinary full-time jobs (37.5 hours per week). The full-time working hours per week are set between 32 and 40 for employees with a health and welfare education who works in health and social services, to adjust for shift working etc. The estimation of man-years is based on the contracted working hours at a reference week (the third week of November in the statistics year) which is considered to be representative for the whole year. The register information on contracted man-years adjusted for long term leaves will not be identical to the actual number of man-years worked, since the statistics does not capture overtime work, self-reported sickness absence, vacations, and other deviations from contracted man-years, except for parental leave and doctor-certified absence. For employees with more than one central government working relation in the reference week, contracted man-years adjusted for long-term leaves are estimated for each working relation and linked to each of the state enterprises where the persons are employed.

Confidentiality

The fields of responsibility in the central government are to a large degree characterized by a single enterprise per division of service. It is difficult to shed light on this responsibility without exposing the actual government service. StatRes has divided the responsibilities into 5 main divisions of services, which is too coarse-screened to illuminate the variety in the central government activities. Statistics Norway has considered the confidentiality concerns, and found that the two conditions for exception in the Statistics Act § 2-6 are granted. The conditions are:

  1. The consideration of an appropriate structure of the statistics requires publications of a detailed level, including the risk of identification of a statistic unit without suppression.
  2. The publication with the risk of identification must not involve injuries (on physical or juridical person).

Consequently, confidentiality regarding central government enterprises is not taken into account in this statistics. Confidentiality is considered only on the subject of clients/users and employees.

Comparability over time and space

The courts and other dispute resolution bodies StatRes publishes indicators for the years 2005-2009. The courts and other dispute resolution bodies StatRes was first published in 2010. The individual indicators are comparable from the year 2005.

Input measured in contracted man-years excluding long-term leave: The transfer of the registration from the courts to the Norwegian Mapping Authority took place in the period from 2004 to 2007. In 2006, the registrations were transferred to the Norwegian Mapping Authority at Hønefoss from 32 courts. In total, wage funds for 83 case handler man-years were transferred from the courts. In 2007, the registrations were transferred from a total of 27 courts. Overall, wage funds for 61 case handler man-years were transferred in 2007.

Accuracy and reliability

Sources of error and uncertainty

Input measured in NOK:

The StatRes enterprises keep accounts according to regulations which include strict accounting controls. In adition, the accounts are audited by the Office of the Auditor General. Errors in accounting data are therefore considered to be negligible.

StatRes aims at measuring central government input in NOK. This is not straightforward, as central Government accounting is cash based, not accrual based. The quality of annual input indicators are still considered satisfactory.

As a consequence of cash based accounting, the fiscal account units do not write off their costs of non-financial capital. Consequently, the costs of capital and imputed depreciation might be underestimated. The investments could be used as an input factor in the estimation of the depreciation. However, the level of investments would vary from each year, and hence deviate significantly from the costs of depreciation.

Another measurement error is related to the fact that various enterprises have interest free access to capital. The costs of this capital are not recorded, and neither included in the input measured in NOK. Similar to the depreciation, this implies that the input in NOK is underestimated. This measurement error can be large for enterprises with large values of fixed assets. However, the most part of the central government enterprises rent their buildings, and own in general a low level of fixed assets. Their costs of non-financial capital will as a consequence appear indirectly, as rental costs under purchase of goods and services.

Processing errors may occur during the estimation of the figures at Statistics Norway. For instance, according to the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund premiums, the same percentage mark-up is applied to all enterprises, while the pension commitments are in real life different between enterprises. The deviations from 15 per cent are though small, according to Statistics Norway’s calculations.

Input measured in contracted man-years:
The data quality concerning minor and sporadic employment will be poorer than for employees registered in the NAV State Register of Employers and Employees. For persons who are identified as employees on the basis of the End of the Year Certificate Register, the employment is not dated precisely. This is the case for 4,6 per cent of the contracted man-years adjusted for long term leaves in the StatRes – total overview population for 2009. The half of these undated contracted man-years adjusted for long term leaves, can however be dated based on information from other registers. For the remaining half, information about salary size is used as a criterion for defining whether the person is employed or not. Accordingly, there is some uncertainty about whether the persons included from the End of the Year Certificate Register actually were working in the enterprise at the time (the third week of November).

The update of the definitions and grouping of the StatRes population according to the Central Register of Establishments and Enterprises (BoF) and the Register of Business Enterprises may be disturbed from lag in reports from other registers and sources. In addition, there may be confusion concerning institutional sectors for each of the enterprises. These are conditions that might result in lack of overview of the population, and absent or incorrect attachment for firms.

The update of the definitions and grouping of the StatRes population is maintained by performing situational extractions from the Central Register of Establishments and Enterprises (BoF) in week 17 in the year after the statistic year. This extraction includes the units with organizational attachment for firms and enterprises in the central government, in addition to synopsis of changes, i.e. new enterprises, deleted enterprises, adjusted attachments etc. during the previous calendar year. There might be an incomplete overview of organisational changes, or time lags according to this, in the data sources.