Court of First Instance
HKCFI · 12083 cases
About the Court of First Instance
The Court of First Instance (HKCFI) has 12083 reported judgments (1900–2026) on HKLII. The most common practice areas are Judicial Review & Immigration (8702), Criminal Law (991), Drug Offences (611) and Bankruptcy & Insolvency (400). The most active judge by reported case count is K.W. Lung (2673 cases).
The Court of First Instance is a division of the High Court of Hong Kong. It exercises unlimited original jurisdiction in both civil and criminal matters, meaning there is no ceiling on the value or seriousness of the claims and charges it may hear. On the criminal side it tries the most serious offences on indictment, sitting with a jury, while on the civil side it determines high-value and factually or legally complex disputes. It also hears applications for judicial review of decisions made by public bodies, together with appeals from magistrates and certain tribunals. Its judges sit at first instance; where a party challenges an outcome, appeals lie to the Court of Appeal within the High Court.
The reported record of the Court of First Instance reflects the breadth of this jurisdiction, and Judicial Review & Immigration features prominently within it, consistent with the court's central role in supervising the legality of public decision-making. Alongside public-law work, the record carries a substantial body of Criminal Law and Drug Offences matters, as well as commercial and financial disputes including Bankruptcy & Insolvency, Company & Shareholder Disputes, and Loans & Debt Recovery. Property-related and succession questions appear through Land & Property and Wills, Probate & Estates cases. Taken together, the caseload spans public law, crime, and civil and commercial litigation rather than concentrating in any single field.
Judgments of the court also carry weight beyond the parties before it, being cited in later reasoning across these areas. Decisions such as [2025] HKCFI 4366, [2024] HKCFI 232, and [2024] HKCFI 403 illustrate the kind of first-instance reasoning that is drawn upon in subsequent matters, and further judgments including [2024] HKCFI 575 and [2024] HKCFI 2260 form part of the same reference-worthy record.
On this page the court's judgments can be browsed and filtered by practice area and by citation, allowing a reader to move from the overall shape of the record to an individual decision and its neutral citation.
How many judgments has the Court of First Instance published?
The Court of First Instance (HKCFI) has 12083 reported judgments (1900–2026) on HKLII.
What areas of law does the Court of First Instance handle?
Most commonly Judicial Review & Immigration (8702), Criminal Law (991), Drug Offences (611) and Bankruptcy & Insolvency (400).
What kind of jurisdiction does the Court of First Instance have?
It has unlimited original jurisdiction in civil and criminal matters as a division of the High Court of Hong Kong. There is no fixed limit on the value or seriousness of the cases it may hear, so it takes the most serious criminal trials on indictment as well as high-value or complex civil claims.
Does the Court of First Instance handle judicial review?
Yes. It hears applications for judicial review of decisions by public bodies and is prominent in this area, alongside its criminal, commercial, property, and succession work.
Where do appeals from the Court of First Instance go?
Its judges sit at first instance, and appeals from its decisions lie to the Court of Appeal, which is the other division of the High Court of Hong Kong.
Top Judges
Practice Areas
Most-Cited Judgments
Court of First Instance judgments most often cited by later Hong Kong judgments, per HKLII citation records.