Criminal Procedure Act 2011

General provisions - Conduct of proceeding - Adjournments and bail

168A: No-contact conditions if family violence offence defendant remanded in custody

You could also call this:

"Rules to stop you contacting certain people if you're in custody for a family violence offence"

Illustration for Criminal Procedure Act 2011

If you are charged with a family violence offence and you are put in custody, a judicial officer can give a direction. This direction can stop you from contacting the victim of the offence or other people. The judicial officer can do this on their own or if you or the prosecutor asks them to. The Registrar can also do this if the prosecutor agrees, and it means you cannot contact certain people while you are in custody under section 168(1)(c).

When we talk about contact, we mean any way you communicate with someone, like face-to-face or using a phone. Contact also means if you start talking to someone or if you make someone else talk to them for you. A family violence offence is a crime that involves family violence, as defined in the Family Violence Act 2018, and this can be found in section 9 of that Act.

The judicial officer can say it is okay for you to contact certain people, but you must follow their rules. You will learn what these rules are when the judicial officer gives the direction. The direction is given to you while you are in custody under section 168(1)(c), and you can also find more information about this in section 168B.

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This page was last updated on 29 June 2025

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS219219.

Topics:

Crime and justice > Criminal lawCrime and justice > Courts and legal helpFamily and relationships > Children and parenting

168: Dealing with defendant on adjournment, or

"What happens to you if your court case is put on hold"

168B: Provisions about compliance with no-contact conditions, or

"Rules to follow when a judge says you can't contact certain people while waiting for your trial"

Part 5General provisions
Conduct of proceeding: Adjournments and bail

168ANo-contact conditions if family violence offence defendant remanded in custody

This section applies to a defendant—
who is charged with an offence that is (even if the charging document does not under section 16A specify that the offence is) a family violence offence; and
who is, or is to be, remanded in custody under section 168(1)(c) (dealing with a defendant on an adjournment).

A judicial officer may give a direction imposing on the defendant 1 or more conditions requiring the defendant, while remanded in custody under section 168(1)(c), to have no contact (except as the judicial officer specifies) with the victim of the offence, any other person specified by the judicial officer, or both.
The power in subsection (2) is exercisable—
on the judicial officer’s own motion or on the application of the defendant or the prosecutor:
by the Registrar, if the prosecutor agrees.

In this section and section 168B,—
contact, by a defendant with a person, means contact or communication that is—
1. direct (that is, face-to-face), or indirect (regardless of the means of contact or communication used); and
2. initiated, or brought about, by the defendant; and
3. with the person
family violence offence means an offence—
1. against any enactment (including the Family Violence Act 2018); and
2. involving family violence (as defined in section 9 of that Act).

Notes

Section 168A: inserted, on 1 July 2019, by section 44 of the Family Violence (Amendments) Act 2018 (2018 No 47).