Judicial Conduct Commissioner and Judicial Conduct Panel Act 2004

Introduction

You could also call this:

"Making the Judicial System Fair and Trustworthy"

Illustration for Judicial Conduct Commissioner and Judicial Conduct Panel Act 2004

You want to know what this Act is for. The purpose is to make people trust the judicial system more. It does this by making sure Judges are treated fairly and impartially. This helps keep the system honest and fair. You might wonder how it does this. It sets up a strong process to investigate when someone thinks a Judge should be removed from their job. This process helps make informed decisions about Judges. The Act also creates an office to look at complaints about Judges. It makes sure the process is fair and respects the idea of Judges being independent. This means Judges can make decisions without being influenced by others.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM293552.

This page was last updated on 11 December 2025 — View changes

Highlights from this law

11: Which complaints must be dealt with

What kinds of complaints about Judges must be looked at?

12: Who may complain

Who can complain about a Judge's behaviour?

13: How to complain

Making a complaint about a Judge: what you need to do

14: Commissioner must acknowledge complaint and deal with it promptly

The Commissioner must reply to your complaint and sort it out quickly.

15: Commissioner must conduct preliminary examination

The Commissioner checks a complaint to see if it's valid and decides what to do next.

16: Commissioner must dismiss complaints that fail to meet required threshold

The Commissioner must reject complaints that don't meet the rules.

17: Commissioner's power to refer complaints to Head of Bench

When the Commissioner sends a complaint to the Head of Bench

18: Commissioner's power to recommend that Attorney-General appoint Judicial Conduct Panel

Commissioner can ask for a special group to check a Judge's behaviour

Topics:

Crime and justice > Courts and legal helpGovernment and voting > Government departments

1: Title, or

"The name of this law is the Judicial Conduct Commissioner and Judicial Conduct Panel Act 2004"

Judicial Conduct Commissioner and Judicial Conduct Panel Act 2004

Reprint as at:: 2025-11-27
Assent:: 2004-05-19
Commencement:: see section 2

The Parliamentary Counsel Office has made editorial and format changes to this version using the powers under subpart 2 of Part 3 of the Legislation Act 2019.

Note 4 at the end of this version provides a list of the amendments included in it.

This Act is administered by the Ministry of Justice.