Researching legal information can be an extremely time consuming and confusing exercise. We have put together this guide for customers, which will help you identify legal resources. Some of these resources are available at Puke Ariki and some are external resources.
New Zealand legal information is generally not accessible free of charge to users. However, legal information is a continually evolving subject area and as changes happen, they will be reflected in this guide.
While we have listed resources here, we cannot be held responsible for their accuracy or for their end use.
Legislation (Acts and regulations)
Resources at Puke Ariki
Puke Ariki is a depository library, which means that we receive all Acts and Regulations of Parliament. These need to be available free of charge to the public. They are held in the Taranaki Research Centre on Level 2.
Puke Ariki holds the following New Zealand legislation and related documents:
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Bills, statutes and regulations
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Parliamentary debates and Hansard
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Hansard supplement
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Order papers and supplementary order papers
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Select committee reports
Resources on the Internet
If you have access to the Internet, Acts of New Zealand are also available free of charge at the following sites:
Interim website of New Zealand legislation
This website provides free public access to unofficial versions of New Zealand statutes (Public, Local, and Private Acts) and Statutory Regulations. You can search and browse this material free of charge.
LegislationNZ
This is a browsable (not searchable) list of all current Acts and Amendments Acts. If you know the name of the Act you are interested in, use the alphabetical listing to retrieve the full text. You can also retrieve all the Acts for a particular year.
However, users of this site need to remember that legislation they are looking at may have been amended or repealed by later legislation. It is important to be certain about this before using any information.
Cases/Judgments
Resources at Puke Ariki
Puke Ariki has a variety of legal publications, which include case notes and tables of cases and some complete cases. These publications include:
- Butterworths Copyright and Design
- Brookers Workplace Safety and Accidents Handbook
- Butterworths Wills and Succession
- Personal Grievances
- Butterworths Employment Contracts
- Brookers Employment Law
- Mazengarbs Employment law
- New Zealand Law Reports 1953-1964
- New Zealand Gazette Law Reports 1924-1952
These are all held in the Taranaki Research Centre, with the New Zealand Statutes.
Only the last two publications contain the full text of cases. Most of the others contain summaries of cases, however, and this may be sufficient for many users.
The Laws of New Zealand
This is a multi-volume set held in the Taranaki Research Centre. These are intended as commentary on the laws of New Zealand. They are divided into booklets on various topics e.g. aviation, banking. Each booklet contains a table of relevant cases, statutes and statutory instruments (codes of practice, district court rules and regulations).
Contained after that is a series of commentary on different aspects of the topic. While cases are mentioned and listed, they do not contain the full text of a case.
Resources on the Internet
Check the following free websites for full text judgments/cases:
Court of Appeal decisions
New Zealand Refugee Law
Purchasing Cases/Judgments
If you want the full text of a recent case you will need to go to an external source. Puke Ariki staff can do this for you and pass on the charges; or you can contact these sources yourself. Cases (or judgments) may be bought from the sources listed below:
- Judgments Unlimited
Ph (04) 472 4953
Fax (04) 472 7180
Email: orders@judgments.co.nz
PO Box 5351, Wellington 1, New Zealand
- Brookers Judgment Service
Ph 0800 732 766
Email: judgments@brookers.co.nz
- Lexis/Nexis Judgment Service (formerly Butterworths)
Ph 0800 800 986 ext 4
Fax (04) 802 7196
PO Box 472, Wellington, New Zealand
http://www.lexisnexis.com.au/nz/products
/judgment/default.asp
Legal Advice
If you have further questions regarding an Act or Regulation or a legal issue, it may be worthwhile contacting the Taranaki Community Law Centre. They have trained legal staff who can help you for little or no cost. Their contact details are:
188 Powderham St
Ph: 759-1492
margaret.tcls@xtra.co.nz
mike.tcls@xtra.co.nz
The Citizens Advice Bureau can also offer legal advice. To contact them:
32 Leach St
Ph: 758-9542
Fax: 759-0999
Email: cab.newplymouth@xtra.co.nz
Web Address: www.cab.org.nz
If you need more legal advice you may have to find a lawyer. There are a number of ways of doing this. Puke Ariki has a directory called Brookers Law Directory, which is a listing of lawyers around New Zealand. There are also several websites that list lawyers and their contact details. Try any of the following:
NZ Law Society - Family Law Database
This website is more useful than many, as you don't need to know the name of a lawyer. You can select a region and the subject area you are interested in eg: lawyers who practice in the Taranaki region and specialize in matrimonial property.
Property Lawyers
Similar to the website above. You don't need to know a name but can choose a region and subject area.
Locate A Lawyer
Not as helpful as you need to know a lawyers name.
Auckland District Law Society - Find a Lawyer
You need to know the name of a law firm or lawyer to use this database.
Internet Legal Sources
There are a number of New Zealand legal sites on the Internet. Try any of the following:
The University of Waikato Law Library Legal Resources
This is an excellent resource for legal information. While it is aimed at law students of the University of Waikato, it contains a comprehensive guide to the New Zealand courts and other decision makers.
Australasian Legal Information Institute
The Australasian Legal Information Institute provides free Internet access to Australian legal materials. It says they are one of the largest sources of legal materials on the net, with more than six gigabytes of raw text materials and over a million searchable documents. AUSTLII also provides links to South Pacific material as well as UK legislation http://www.bailii.org/
An Introduction to NZ Law & Legal Information 2002
This guide has been written by the law librarian at Canterbury University and is an excellent introduction to New Zealand legal resources, and more especially, where information can be found.
New Zealand Law Librarians Group links
A collection of legal links provided by the NZ Law Librarians Group.
How to Law – New Zealand's leading self-help legal site
This site bills itself as a self-help legal site and contains a number of "How to..." guides on popular topics. While the guides are fairly brief they are a useful introduction to a topic and the site is regularly updated.
Findlaw New Zealand
Provides access to selected recent cases for free as well as links to government information, legal dictionaries and other resources
Pipers NZ Legal Information
This site provides links to a number of New Zealand legal sites, sorted alphabetically.
Other Sources of Legal Information
If you want to get the complete text of a case, but don't know the exact details, Taranaki Research Centre staff can help you with this. We have access to online legal indexes, which we can search for you. This makes it easier to request the case from an outside source. There are charges for using these indexes – please ask at the Research Centre. These databases include:
Briefcase
Law Library Management's Briefcase is an index to all published cases since 1986 in publications such as Butterworths Current Law, Capital Letter and Court Reports.
LINX
This is the combined database of the Auckland, Wellington, and Canterbury District Law Societies. LINX contains index references to Court of Appeal and High Court judgments, and journal articles and texts held by the three libraries.
Unreported decisions
These are often important decisions, but they are not reported in the law journals; however most law libraries will hold unreported decisions. Again, Taranaki Research Centre staff can obtain these for you for a charge.
Journal/Report literature
There are a number of sources for these; LINX, AGIS (Australian Law Journals), AUSTLII for the initial searching and law libraries for interloaning this material. There will be charges both for searching and for interloan.
Indepth legal searches
Library staff can use the services of the District Law Society Libraries in Wellington or Auckland for more complex searches. These libraries have access to databases such as LEXIS/NEXIS and in-depth legal resources. Again there would be a charge for this information.
New Plymouth District Court
The Court Registrar holds copies of forms and other similar information.
Glossary
Legislation
Written and approved laws. Also known as "statutes" or "Acts". In constitutional law, one would talk of the "power to legislate" or the "legislative arm of government" referring to the power of political bodies (eg: House of Assembly, Congress, Parliament) to write the laws of the land.
Statutes
The written laws approved by legislatures, parliaments or houses of assembly (i.e., politicians). Also known as "legislation".
Case law
Reported decisions of appeal courts and other courts, which make new interpretations of the law and, therefore, can be cited as precedents. These interpretations are distinguished from "statutory law", which is the statutes and codes (laws) enacted by legislative bodies; "regulatory law", which is regulations required by agencies based on statutes; and in some countries, the common law, which is the generally accepted law carried down from England. Law students principally study case law to understand the application of law to facts and learn the courts' subsequent interpretations of statutes.