MANILA: The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday said case disposition rates in lower courts have gradually increased over the last three years. In a statement, the tribunal said based on the data from the Office of the Court Administrator (OCA), for first-level courts, from a case disposition rate of 53 percent in 2021, this increased to 60 percent in 2022 and to 61 percent in 2023. For second-level courts, the case disposition rate for 2023 is 42 percent, up from 39 percent in 2022 and 32 percent in 2021. The case disposition rate is computed by dividing the total number of decided, resolved, and archived cases by the total number of pending and new cases, multiplied by 100. First level courts are more commonly referred to as Metropolitan Trial Courts (MeTC), Municipal Trial Courts in Cities (MTCC), Municipal Trial Court (MTC), and Municipal Circuit Trial Courts (MCTC). The MeTCs are the first level courts in the Metropolitan Manila area. First level courts in cities outside Metropolitan Manila are referred to as the MTCCs. The MTCs are first level courts that cover only one municipality, whereas MCTCs cover multiple municipalities. Regional Trial Courts are also known as second level courts, which were established among the 13 judicial regions in the Philippines consisting of Regions 1 to 12 and the National Capital Region. Source: Philippines News Agency
