What Is Case Law Nz

The best place to look for an international jurisdiction may depend on what you need. If you want a quick overview of cases in Australia, the UK, Canada and the US, try Lexis Advance. The court changer allows you to easily switch from one jurisdiction to another and you can also easily compare with New Zealand. If you want a case from one of the ICLR “Law Reports” series, e.g. QB, CA, then the ICLR database is for you. You can also search for international cases on Thomson Reuters Westlaw, and if none of these cases work, you can consider the LII family of databases. Below is a breakdown of the sites or cases of the main jurisdictions and some videos demonstrating the databases in action. The following videos show you how to search for queries in the database. The party bringing the action against the defendant. This could be the police, the Crown attorney or the private complainant.

In the High Court, the prosecutor will always be either a Crown attorney or a private prosecutor. Westlaw NZ contains reported and unreported case law from a variety of New Zealand courts and tribunals. The database is particularly strong for unreported cases. It also includes Australian content previously found on Thomson Reuters` international platform Westlaw. The reported version of cases found in news series such as NZLR, DCR, etc. is not available on Westlaw NZ as they are published by Lexis Advance and can therefore be found there. NZLII is home to a treasure trove of old legal journalists as well as the so-called “lost cases” that were only reported in 19th century newspapers. NZLII is a bit more “clunky” to search for than Westlaw NZ and Lexis Advance, so it`s easier if you have a reference that gives more detail than “just” the name of the case.

It also hosts cases from many modern courts and tribunals and allows access to these for those who don`t have it via subscription databases. Due to the eclectic and ever-growing offer available through NZLII, if the case you want comes from a New Zealand dish and can`t be found anywhere else, it`s definitely worth trying NZLII. Another place where you can look for a free, publicly available jurisdiction is the courts` website. There are links to Judicial Decisions Online and a decision finder that covers many different courts you`ll want to browse. Cases here usually date back to the last few years, so NZLII is always the best choice for really old case law. If you need help finding case law, contact the Law Librarian. There are currently series of reports such as Family Law Reports, Employment Reports of New Zealand, Magistrate Court Decisions, which also contain case tables. There are several ways to find cases on Lexis Advance. The easiest way is to simply use the search box at the top of the screen. You can also use the advanced case template or search for a discrete collection by accessing it from the search box. A basic overview of Lexis Advance features is also available. Case law is a primary source of legal information and can be reported directly by the court in a series of legislative reports or in a court decision.

If you are doing legal research, you may be looking for a specific case where you have the citation, or cases that are relevant to a legal issue. Several tools are available to search for cases on a topic. BriefCase is a comprehensive index of over 180,000 cases from various courts and tribunals. Each entry contains a summary of cases, statutes cited, cases cited and classification terms. Linx, on Westlaw NZ and Linx Plus on Lexis Advance is a database of judgments indexed by law societies and also offers many search options such as: free text, case title, judge, keywords/topics, etc. You can search case collections in several ways: cases that have a positive history (that have been cited or followed by other cases) are generally considered a “better law” than those that have been overturned by a subsequent decision. The CiteCase system displays each subsequent processing of a case using flags and symbols, each with a slightly different meaning. The image below shows some of the most commonly used, see the full explanations of the symbols for the entire area. You can get a brief description of the meaning of a particular symbol by hovering over it when you see it next to a case name. A person who testifies in court about what they have seen, heard or otherwise experienced.

In most cases, the media have the right to publish a person`s name if that person has been charged with a crime. In cases where the publication of a person`s name would cause undue hardship to that person or another person, the court may grant temporary or permanent removal of the name. Further information can be found in Article 200 (external link) of the Act and on the website of Community law (external link). The disclosure (external link) is a copy of the evidence (external link) that the Crown (external link) and the police have collected to pursue your case. For more information, see the Criminal Disclosures Act 2008 (external link). In criminal cases, it is the Crown that has this responsibility and the standard of proof in force is not in doubt. This means that the onus is on the prosecutor to prove beyond a doubt that the accused (you) is guilty of the alleged crime(s); The accused does not have to prove his innocence. There are several case citers you can use to help you with your case search. Case citers usually give you insight into the subject of the case, they also provide important information about your case, such as the cases used by your case (cases cited) and the cases in which your case was used (citing cases). They also help you discover the history of your case, and if it has been rejected, they usually use flags for this purpose. Beware of these flags, however, firstly because they are the opinion of the publisher, and secondly, your case may have been decided on another aspect of the law. You should always read a case before including it in your legal argument.

Citators can be integrated into a database or help you determine which database contains the case you are looking for, such as JustisOne and Oxford Law Citator. After a main hearing, the opposing party`s lawyer has the opportunity to ask questions of the witness in order to contest the other party`s case. The courts do not invalidate laws passed by Parliament. While courts must apply laws, they may need to interpret what they mean first. Parliament sometimes disagrees with the interpretation of a law by the courts and, in these circumstances, can amend the law to clarify its meaning. This is when a party`s lawyer calls their witnesses and asks them questions in court to support their case. After hearing a case, the judge may reserve his decision. This is when the judge postpones the decision to a later date. The courts handle more than 1,600 criminal cases per year and hear more than 1,000 substantial civil matters between individuals or between individuals and the government.

Court-resolved disputes affect virtually every aspect of life in New Zealand. A person against whom a crime is committed by another person who causes bodily harm or loss of or damage to property. This includes the parents or guardians of a child or young person who is the victim of a crime, unless that parent or guardian has been convicted of the crime. A victim is also an immediate family member of a person who dies or becomes legally incapacitated as a result of an offence committed against the victim, unless that family member is convicted in that case. More information on victims` rights is available in the Victims` Rights Act 2002 (external link). A hearing will be held to review the case to see if an indictment can be resolved without trial. For example, if the prosecution withdraws the charges against you or if you plead guilty, there will be no trial. A judge cannot be properly influenced by the law and the facts of the case that he finds them. In this way, decisions are impartial, fair and taken in accordance with established legal principles.

The library has a good selection of printed Maori case law. Some of the sources included in this list can be found in our New Zealand Collection (NZC), which is also on Level 4 of the library. In addition, indexes of printed legal reports are useful for finding current and historical cases. New Zealand Law Reports in KH341 N49 at Law Library Level 3 have merged indexes related to report volumes.