Trade Marks Act 2002

Legal proceedings - Enforcement officers - Entry and search under search warrant

134I: Form and content of search warrant

You could also call this:

"How search warrants are written and what they must include"

A search warrant is a special document that allows people to search for and take things. When someone makes a search warrant, they must follow certain rules.

The search warrant must be written in a specific way that the law says is correct. It can be used by any enforcement officer or police officer. The person who makes the warrant can add rules about how it should be used. Usually, you can only use a search warrant once, but sometimes it might say you can use it more than once.

The search warrant needs to have lots of important information in it. It must say who made it and when. It needs to explain which law allows the search warrant to be made. The warrant says that the person doing the search can ask for help if they need it, and can use force to get into places if they have to.

The search warrant must describe the place that can be searched and what things can be taken. It also says how long the warrant can be used for. Usually, this is up to 14 days, but it can be up to 30 days if more time is needed. If there are any special rules about using the warrant, these must be written down too.

If the warrant can be used more than once, it must say how many times it can be used.

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This page was last updated on 13 May 2025

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM4124331.

Topics:

Crime and justice > Police and safetyCrime and justice > Courts and legal help

134H: Mode of application for search warrant, or

"How to ask for permission to search a place"

134J: Transmission of search warrant, or

"How a search can happen without the actual warrant"

Part 4Legal proceedings
Enforcement officers: Entry and search under search warrant

134IForm and content of search warrant

Every search warrant issued must be in the prescribed form.
Every search warrant issued must be directed generally to every enforcement officer and every constable.
A search warrant—
may be executed by any of the persons to whom it is directed:
may be subject to any conditions specified in the warrant that the issuing officer considers reasonable:
may be executed only once, unless execution on more than 1 occasion is authorised.

Every search warrant must contain, in reasonable detail, the following particulars:
the name of the issuing officer and the date of issue:
the provision of this Act authorising the issue of the warrant:
that the person executing the warrant may use any assistance that is reasonable in the circumstances:
that the person executing the warrant may use any force that is reasonable in the circumstances to enter or break open or access any place being searched, or any area within that place, or any thing being searched or thing found:
the address or description of the place or thing that may be searched:
a description of what may be seized:
the period during which the warrant may be executed, being—
1. a period specified by the issuing officer not exceeding 14 days from the date of issue; or
2. if the issuing officer is satisfied that a period of longer than 14 days is necessary for execution, a period specified by the issuing officer not exceeding 30 days from the date of issue:
any conditions specified by the issuing officer under subsection (3)(b):
if the warrant may be executed on more than 1 occasion, the number of times that the warrant may be executed.

Notes

Section 134I: inserted, on 7 October 2011, by section 18 of the Trade Marks Amendment Act 2011 (2011 No 71).