Health, Safety and Security reminders and resources for providers
Health, Safety and Security (HSS) site inductions are available for lawyers at all courts. HSS site inductions contain site specific information and are designed to give an overview of the security settings onsite at that Court, and to provide simple ways to keep yourself safe.
We encourage your attendance every 12 months to allow the Ministry to provide updates on any changes to the site, and to provide information to you about safety best-practices. You should attend an HSS site induction for each court site you regularly visit.
To book onto an induction please talk to your local Court Security Manager. Alternatively, you can email NSOadmin@justice.govt.nzand ask for the email address of your local Court Security Manager.
The NZ Law Society offer free counselling services, and other resources to support practising well. This information is available NZLS | Practising Well(external link)
22 January 2026
New legislation goes live 1 February 2026 to improve case management within the District Court at the pre-trial stage
The Judicature (Timeliness) Legislation Amendment Bill, introduced as part of Budget 2025, has now passed and will come into effect on 1 February 2026. This omnibus Bill contains several items to improve court timeliness by freeing up judicial resources, reducing duplication, and unnecessary churn.
One of the changes is an amendment to the Criminal Procedure Act 2011 (the Act). The new s156A of the Act will allow a District Court Judge to direct that some or all charges against the same defendant be managed together at the pre-trial stage (including the administrative and review stages), in the same District Court location.
An overview of what this change means is below:
The judicial direction will only apply to new proceedings. This is to ensure that it will not disrupt proceedings currently underway.
The judicial direction only applies to pre-trial proceedings. Charges will go back to the original court of filing for trial and/or sentencing, unless the judge directs that the charge is transferred to a different District Court location.
The judiciary will consider requests to combine proceedings on a case-by-case basis.