Sentencing Act 2002

Sentences, orders, and related matters - Monetary penalties - Reparation

32: Sentence of reparation

You could also call this:

"Paying back for harm you caused: fixing damage or helping someone you hurt"

If you commit a crime, a court can order you to pay reparation to the person you harmed. You might have to pay for damage to their property, or for emotional harm you caused them. The court can also order you to pay for any other losses that happened because of the harm you caused.

When deciding if you should pay reparation, the court thinks about whether the person you harmed can get help in another way, like through a different law. The court looks at what the law says, even if the person you harmed has not used that law yet.

If the person you harmed can get compensation from the Accident Compensation Act 2001, the court will not order you to pay reparation for the same thing. When the court decides how much reparation you should pay, it thinks about what you have already offered or agreed to do to make things right, as described in section 10.

The court cannot order you to do work or a service for the person you harmed as part of your reparation. Some laws, like section 320 of the Accident Compensation Act 2001, do not apply when the court is deciding about reparation.

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This page was last updated on 26 June 2025

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM135596.

Topics:

Crime and justice > Criminal lawCrime and justice > Courts and legal helpCrime and justice > Victim support

31: General requirement to give reasons, or

"The judge must explain their decisions in court."

33: Court may order reparation report, or

"Court can ask for a report to help decide how much you should pay for what you did wrong"

Part 2Sentences, orders, and related matters
Monetary penalties: Reparation

32Sentence of reparation

A court may impose a sentence of reparation if an offender has, through or by means of an offence of which the offender is convicted, caused a person to suffer—
loss of or damage to property; or
emotional harm; or
loss or damage consequential on any emotional or physical harm or loss of, or damage to, property.

Despite subsection (1), a court must not impose a sentence of reparation in respect of emotional harm, or loss or damage consequential on emotional harm, unless the person who suffered the emotional harm is a person described in paragraph (a) of the definition of victim in section 4.
In determining whether a sentence of reparation is appropriate or the amount of reparation to be made for any consequential loss or damage described in subsection (1)(c), the court must take into account whether there is or may be, under the provisions of any enactment or rule of law, a right available to the person who suffered the loss or damage to bring proceedings or to make any application in relation to that loss or damage.
Subsection (3) applies whether or not the right to bring proceedings or make the application has been exercised in the particular case, and whether or not any time prescribed for the exercise of that right has expired.
Despite subsections (1) and (3), the court must not order the making of reparation in respect of any consequential loss or damage described in subsection (1)(c) for which compensation has been, or is to be, paid under the Accident Compensation Act 2001.
When determining the amount of reparation to be made, the court must take into account any offer, agreement, response, measure, or action as described in section 10.
The court must not impose as part of a sentence of reparation an obligation on the offender to perform any form of work or service for the person who suffered the harm, loss, or damage.
Nothing in section 320 of the Accident Compensation Act 2001 applies to sentencing proceedings.

Compare

1985 No 120 s 22(1)

Notes

Section 32(5): replaced, on 6 December 2014, by section 6 of the Sentencing Amendment Act 2014 (2014 No 38).
Section 32(8): amended, on 3 March 2010, pursuant to section 5(1)(b) of the Accident Compensation Amendment Act 2010 (2010 No 1).