Lexis Insights

Legal News, Views, and Insights from LexisNexis Hong Kong

The Legislative Council passed resolutions on June 27, 2018 with the implementation on increasing the civil jurisdictional limits of ­­the District Court. These amendments has come into effect on December 3, 2018. The change in jurisdictional limits allows the lower courts to have the jurisdiction to deal with higher valued claims. Therefore, this reduces the increasing caseload that the Court of First Instance encounters as they can focus on handling more complex cases that involve higher claim amounts.

The amendments for the District Court are as follows:
-An increase in the general financial limit of the civil jurisdiction of the DC from $1 million to $3 million;
-An increase in the financial limit for land matters of the District Court rom $240,000 to $320,000 in terms of the annual rent or the ratable value or the annual value of the land;
-An increase in the limit for the equity jurisdiction of the District Court where the proceedings do not involve or relate to land from $1 million to $3 million; and
-An increase in the limit for equity jurisdiction of the DC where the proceedings wholly involve or relate to land from $3 million to $7 million.

For more information on practice that involves Hong Kong District Court, please see:
-Hong Kong District Court Practice – Fourth Edition by P.Y. Lo