The number of cases filed with local courts at the end of the third quarter this year is 36 percent more than the amount filed in the same period last year, the Department of Judicial Administration has said.

A report from the judicial custodian said in its ‘management report’ for the 2017’s third quarter that a total of 5,799 cases have been filed at local courts thus far this year.

A total of 4,263 had been filed in the same period in 2016, a difference of exactly 1,536.

These figures do not include cases filed with the Supreme Court, High Court, and regional magistrate courts.

The report stated that the number of cases filed with superior courts – the Supreme and High Courts – had increased by 57 percent while those filed with magistrate courts increased by 22 percent.

However, the report also states that the amount of cases concluded by local courts this year in comparison to 2016 is less by five percent.

The total number of cases concluded by said courts in 2016 was 4,707 while the amount concluded by the same courts this year for the same period is 4,493.

The report further states that cases concluded by the High Court and Supreme Court rose by exactly five percent while the number of cases concluded by regional magistrate courts dropped by 12 percent.

According to the department, there are total of 9.376 cases pending at local courts while there had been 6,969 – significantly less – pending by the end of September, 2016.