There are several resources and websites available to use if you are looking for legal advice:

• Find a lawyer – use the ADLS Inc website to search for a lawyer by region, language spoken, area of practice or whether they practice in countries other than New Zealand
• The Legal Services Agency (LSA) has created a catalogue of law-related information and resources: www.lawaccess.lsa.govt.nz
• The Citizens Advice Bureau has branches all over New Zealand. They can arrange short periods of free legal advice for you. Phone 0800 367 222 or 0800 FOR CAB to be put through to your nearest branch.
• Community Law Centres help people who either can't afford to pay for legal services, or whose legal needs are not met by other providers. These services include legal advice, legal assistance and law-related education.
• The Ministry of Justice website provides information about jury service, or you can contact the Court where you are to appear. There is information about the Courts and contact details available on the Ministry’s website.

Finding statutes and other legal materials

If you are looking for statutes and other legal materials, there are a few places you can search:

• The interim website of New Zealand Legislation provided by the Parliamentary Counsel Office (PCO) in association with Brookers. This website provides an up-to-date copy of the state of the law and while it is not "official", for practical purposes is all that is necessary.
• Auckland City Libraries – the Central branch is a depository library for Parliamentary material (including Acts and Regulations) and international documents. Click here to view a list of legal materials held by Auckland Central.
• The Legal Links section of the ADLS website provides NZ and international sources of legal information available on the internet.

Finding judgments from the Courts

Judgments from the courts are first available as "unreported judgments" which are typed copies of the judgment. Later these may be published or "reported" in law reports series such as the New Zealand Law Reports. Reporting may take some time, and some judgments are never reported. Copies of judgments can be purchased from the court where the judgment was given, but it may easier to go to a commercial judgments service.

The NZ Legal Information Institute website provides access to full text decisions from the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal as well as various other tribunals and authorities.

The Department for Courts sells Court of Appeal, High Court and District Court decisions from the registry of the court house where the decision was made. The site also provides full text access to some decisions from the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal and High Court. For contact details go to the Courts website or see Courts, Department for in the Government listings section of the telephone book.

LexisNexis Judgment Service is a fee-based delivery service for unreported judgments, run by LexisNexis Butterworths publishing house in Wellington. Contact them on phone 0800 800 986 extn 4, or fax 04 802 7196.

Brookers Judgment Service is a fee-based delivery service for unreported judgments, run by Brookers publishing house in Wellington. Contact them on judgments@brookers.co.nz.

The Tribunals Unit is the Wellington office within the Ministry of Justice that distributes decisions and information from all the individual Tribunals and Authorities. Contact them on phone 04 918 8300 or fax 04 918 8303.

Victoria University of Wellington has a judgment service. Their charges are: 1 - 39 pages: $12.00
40+ pages: $15.00
Fax charge for same-day delivery: $10 for judgments up to 30 pages; $2 for every 10 pages or part thereof beyond 30
E-copy: $15.00 (As an email attachment)