On this page there is a link to a list of criminal judgments available on this website and information to help you search and find judgments. There's also a link to a list of common keywords that you can use to help with your search, and practical hints for quickly finding what you are looking for.

Browsing

The following link will open a list of all of the criminal-related judgments available on this database. The list has the most recently published judgments at the top.

All criminal judgments

Judgments on criminal matters that are heard in the District Court are each given a Medium Neutral Citation (MNC). This includes the year that the matter was heard, a court identifier, a unique number, and the names of the parties to the case.

For example, criminal judgments appear in the following format on this database: 
Davis v Bradley [2016] NZDC 1589.

Keywords

The criminal keyword list contains words, phrases, and legislation commonly referred to in criminal judgements on this site.

Criminal keyword list

To find a criminal judgment:

1. Find a word, phrase, or legislation title and/or section number relating to the matter you want to search on from the keyword list.
2. Enter the keyword into the search box.
3. Select Criminal from the Filter Search drop-down.
4. Press Enter.

To limit the number of search results returned you can also filter by the year and full date that the judgment was published on this site.

Anonymisation

Party names in some judgments have been changed to comply with legal requirements.

Content or names within judgments in this database may be suppressed because of a statutory provision, a suppression order of the court, or an order made in the course of delivering judgment.

Some published judgments may contain banners noting that a statutory suppression order applies, or a court order may be noted in the judgment. These decisions are only published after the names have been changed and any identifying details of the protected person have been redacted.

For more information on statutory prohibitions see:

Statutory Prohibitions on Publication [PDF, 211 KB]

Criminal judgments in this database may have been anonymised. This is where real names are replaced with pseudonyms and, where it is appropriate, by editing and removing information that would allow any protected parties to be identified.

Identifying information or information within a judgment that has been removed to comply with legal requirements is identified by [ ]. For example, [address deleted].