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Child Support Act 1991

General provisions - Miscellaneous provisions

229: Power of Family Court or District Court to call witnesses

You could also call this:

“Courts can ask people to give information in child support cases”

In a case under the Child Support Act 1991 that isn’t a criminal case, the Family Court or District Court can ask someone to be a witness if they think that person’s information might help. This includes asking any person involved in the case or their husband or wife to be a witness.

If the court asks you to be a witness, you have the same right to not answer questions as you would if someone else in the case had asked you to be a witness.

The court, or a lawyer helping the court, can ask you questions if you’re a witness. Other people involved in the case, or their lawyers, can also ask you questions. This includes lawyers speaking for children involved in the case.

The rules about witnesses in criminal cases (found in the Criminal Procedure Act 2011) also apply to witnesses the court asks to speak in these cases, but with some changes to fit this situation.

If the court asks you to be a witness, the government will pay for your expenses according to set rules about how much witnesses should be paid.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM257341.

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Family and relationships > Children and parenting Crime and justice > Courts and legal help
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Part 14 General provisions
Miscellaneous provisions

229Power of Family Court or District Court to call witnesses

  1. In any proceeding before it under this Act (not being criminal proceedings) the Family Court or District Court may of its own motion call as a witness any person whose evidence may in its opinion be of assistance to the court.

  2. The power conferred by subsection (1) shall include power to call as a witness any party to the proceeding or the husband or wife of any party to the proceeding.

  3. A witness called by the court under this section shall have the same privilege to refuse to answer any question as the witness would have if the witness had been called by a party to the proceeding.

  4. A witness called by the court under this section may be examined and re-examined by the court, or by any barrister or solicitor assisting the court, and may be cross-examined by or on behalf of any party to the proceeding or by any barrister or solicitor appointed to represent a child who is involved in the proceeding.

  5. Sections 159 and 161 to 165 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2011, so far as they are applicable and with the necessary modifications, shall apply with respect to every person called as a witness by the court under this section as if that person had been called by a party to the proceeding.

  6. The expenses of any witness called by the court under this section, in accordance with the prescribed scale of witnesses' expenses, shall be paid in the first instance out of public money appropriated by Parliament.

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Notes
  • Section 229(1): amended, on , by section 261 of the District Court Act 2016 (2016 No 49).
  • Section 229(5): amended, on , by section 413 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2011 (2011 No 81).