MORE than 20,000 cases were pending before Fiji’s courts as of July 31, 2026, according to figures tabled in Parliament by Acting Attorney-General Siromi Turaga.
The information was provided in response to a question from Leader of Opposition Inia Seruiratu, who sought a breakdown of pending cases before the Judiciary by court, location, year and case type.
The figures show the Magistrate’s Court carried the overwhelming majority of the backlog, with 17,191 pending cases.
Of these, 10,672 were criminal cases, 2660 civil cases and 3859 classified under other categories.
The Central and Eastern divisions recorded the largest Magistrate’s Court caseload at 7464 cases, followed by the Western Division with 7317 and the Northern Division with 2410. A further 3140 cases were pending before the High Court — 2437 civil, 652 criminal and 51 other cases.
Suva accounted for 1461 High Court cases, while Lautoka recorded 1402 and Labasa 277.
The Court of Appeal had 763 pending cases, comprising 490 criminal and 273 civil matters, while the Supreme Court had 33 pending cases. The detailed Judiciary records show that some cases have remained on the books for many years. The High Court civil summary, for example, contains pending matters dating back to 1998, while Court of Appeal records include cases from 2014.
