Judicial Decisions Online provides a searchable database of judgments and decisions sourced from New Zealand Courts.
The purpose of Judicial Decisions Online is to make a greater number of New Zealand's Senior Courts' (Supreme Court, Court of Appeal, High Court) judicial decisions and the reasoning behind them, available to the public as efficiently and widely as possible.
Decisions of particular public interest may be published on the internet on the Judgments of Public Interest(external link) site immediately following delivery. Decisions are published on the JDO site following delivery to the parties, but no earlier than three days after the decisions are given.
Decisions from the following New Zealand Courts are available:
The following decisions are NOT published:
Decisions subject to a statutory prohibition or suppression order are published if available in a form that complies with the prohibition or restriction. Some published decisions may contain banners outlining time-limited suppression orders or non-publication orders pending final disposition of trial. These decisions will only have been published following determination that the orders are spent, or that the trial or retrial has occurred.
Criminal judgments are reviewed annually for eligibility under the Criminal Records (Clean Slate) Act 2004. This is in accordance with the agreement that the Ministry has with the Judiciary regarding publication of these decisions, and to ensure compliance with the Act.
Changes in circumstances after a decision is published on the internet may affect the accuracy of information. No assurance is given as to the accuracy or completeness of any representation, statement, information or advice contained after the publication on the internet. The authenticated decision on the court file takes precedence. Only court decisions are made available via JDO. If you require access to other material, or to the court file itself, please contact the court concerned.
It is the responsibility of users of the information contained in the decisions to ensure compliance with conditions or other legal obligations governing access, release, storage and re-publication. If in doubt you should consult the Court that issued the decision.
No copyright exists in respect of judgments or decisions of any New Zealand Court or Tribunal. See Copyright Act 1994 s27(g).
Decisions are presented in PDF format to preserve the integrity of the documents, and ensure decisions retain the formatting, footnotes and layout of the original text.
(You will need Acrobat Reader to view the PDF files. It can be downloaded from the Adobe Website(external link))