When a New Zealand court makes a final judgment against someone in Australia, you can register the judgment in an Australian court and enforce it against a person there.
You can do the same when an Australian court makes a final judgment against someone in New Zealand.
If you are the person who has had the judgment made against them, you may be able to apply to cancel the registration or stop the enforcement.
Types of judgments that can be registered
You can register judgments that order a person to:
pay money
do something (for example, return specific property).
Some types of judgments are not covered by this process. For example, you can't register judgments relating to:
wills
the care of children or people who aren't capable of managing their own personal affairs
Register a New Zealand civil court judgment in Australia
You need to apply directly to an Australian court to register a New Zealand civil court judgment. You should use their forms and processes.
You can register the judgment in an Australian state Supreme Court, or in a state or territory court that has the power to make the same types of orders as contained in the New Zealand judgment.
You can register the judgment in the New Zealand High Court, or in a lower court that can make the same types of orders as those in the Australian judgment.
The same rules apply regarding the types of judgments that can and can't be registered.
Australian judgments imposing civil financial penalties or limited types of criminal fines can also be registered in New Zealand:
The criminal fines that can be registered in New Zealand are set out in the Trans-Tasman Proceedings (Regulatory Regime Criminal Fines) Order 2013. These criminal fines relate to regulatory offences, such as offences under fair trading or banking laws.
Judgments imposing criminal fines must be registered in the New Zealand High Court.
These types of judgments are registered in the same way as a civil court judgment.
Stop an Australian judgment being enforced in New Zealand
Review of registrar’s decision
If you think an Australian judgment was registered using information that was incorrect or incomplete you can apply for a review of the registrar's decision.
You need to file your application within 5 working days after you received notice of the registrar's decision.
Apply to suspend enforcement or cancel registration
You can apply to the New Zealand court to stay (suspend) enforcement while you are appealing against the Australian judgment or asking the Australian court to change or cancel the decision.
You can apply to the New Zealand court to set aside (cancel) registration of the judgment. The limited grounds for cancelling registration include the court being satisfied that:
the judgment was registered wrongly or
enforcing the judgment would be contrary to 'public policy' in New Zealand.
It costs NZ$337 to apply to cancel registration or suspend enforcement.
These applications must be filed within 30 working days after you received notice that the Australian judgment was registered, unless the court gives you permission for a longer period.