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288C: Judge may make order restricting commencement or continuation of proceeding
or “A judge can stop someone from starting or continuing a case in the Environment Court if they think it's necessary.”
You could also call this:

“When a judge can stop someone from starting more court cases that have no real reason”

You can ask a judge to make an order under section 288C in two situations:

  1. The judge can make a limited order if they think that two or more cases about the same issue in court had no good reason behind them.

  2. The judge can make an extended order if they think that at least two cases about any issue in court had no good reason behind them.

When the judge is deciding if a case had no good reason, they can look at other court actions the person has been involved in, but they don’t have to.

The cases must be ones that the person started or kept going, even if they were against different people.

If someone appeals a civil case, it’s treated as part of the same case, not a new one.

This section is connected to sections 288E and 288F, which have more information about these orders.

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Next up: 288E: Terms of section 288C order

or “The court can stop someone from starting or continuing legal cases for up to 5 years.”
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Part 11 Environment Court
Procedure and powers

288DGrounds for making section 288C order

  1. A Judge may make a limited order under section 288C if, in proceedings about the same matter in the court, the Judge considers that at least 2 or more of the proceedings are or were totally without merit.

  2. A Judge may make an extended order under section 288C if, in at least 2 proceedings about any matter considered by the court, the Judge considers that the proceedings are or were totally without merit.

  3. In determining whether the proceedings are or were totally without merit, the Judge may take into account the nature of any other interlocutory application, appeals, or criminal prosecutions involving the party to be restrained, but is not limited to those considerations.

  4. The proceedings concerned must be proceedings commenced or continued by the party to be restrained, whether against the same person or different persons.

  5. For the purpose of this section and sections 288E and 288F, an appeal in a civil proceeding must be treated as part of that proceeding and not as a distinct proceeding.

Notes
  • Section 288D: inserted, on , by section 8 of the Resource Management Amendment Act 2016 (2016 No 68).