This page contains information to help you find judgments when searching our database for Youth Court decisions. It includes some common keywords that you can use to help with your search, and practical hints for quickly finding what you are looking for.

On this page:

• Youth Court judgments database
• Youth Court keywords
• How to find a Youth Court judgment
• Important note before reporting or republishing Youth Court decisions

Youth Court judgments database

The following link will open a list of all Youth Court judgments published on this website since March 2016. The most recently published judgments are at the top.

Youth Court judgments database

Youth Court keywords

The Youth Court database keyword list contains words, phrases, and legislation commonly referred to in Youth Court judgements on this site. These can be used to help narrow your search.

Youth Court database search keyword list

How to find a Youth Court judgment

Judgments made in the Youth 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.

Youth Court decisions appear in the following format on this website:
AB v CD [2016] NZYC 1234.

To find a Youth Court judgment:

1. Select Youth from the Filter search drop-down list.
2. From the keyword list, select a word, phrase, or legislation title and/or section number relating to the matter you want to search on.
3. Enter the keyword or phrase into the Search box.
4. Select Search or 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 and suppression in youth judgments

Youth Court decisions are not able to be searched using the original party names, as these are automatically suppressed under section 438(3) of the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989(external link).

Anonymisation

Youth Court judgments in this database have been anonymised by:

• replacing real names with initials, and
• where appropriate, 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].

Suppression

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 for media [PDF, 211 KB], August 2020

Important note before reporting or republishing Youth Court decisions

Any person, including news media¹, wanting to publish or report from Youth Court decisions published on this website must get permission to do this from the court that heard the proceedings. This is a requirement under section 438 (1) of the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989(external link).

To request this permission, contact either:

• the presiding judge, via the registrar at the court where the case was dealt with, or

• the Chief District Court Judge's Chambers at ChiefJudges.Chambers@courts.govt.nz.

1. This requirement does not apply to professional or technical publications that meet the definition in s438(2).