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Criminal Procedure Act 2011

General provisions - Public access and restrictions on reporting - Automatic suppression of previous convictions

199B: Further provisions relating to automatic suppression

You could also call this:

"Hiding old convictions online: the court can order websites to remove details of your past crimes."

If you have a previous conviction, the court can order someone who controls a website to remove or hide details of your conviction from their site. You can think of this like a news article about you that is online - the court can ask the person in charge of the website to take it down. The court must tell the person who controls the website that they are thinking about making this order, and give them a chance to say what they think.

When the court makes this order, it only lasts for as long as the automatic suppression of your conviction lasts. The person who controls the website must be given a chance to have their say before the court makes a decision. This law is part of the Criminal Procedure Act 2011 and was updated by the Contempt of Court Act 2019.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS409636.

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199A: Automatic suppression of details of previous convictions, or

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Part 5General provisions
Public access and restrictions on reporting: Automatic suppression of previous convictions

199BFurther provisions relating to automatic suppression

  1. The court may order a person who hosts material on a website or other electronic retrieval system that can be accessed by a user to take down, or disable public access to, details of the defendant’s previous convictions on that website or other electronic retrieval system that is under the person’s control.

  2. Whenever reasonably practicable, the person who hosts the material must be—

  3. served with the application for an order or notified that the court is considering making an order under subsection (1); and
    1. given an opportunity to be heard by the court.

      1. An order made under subsection (1) expires with the expiry of the automatic suppression to which it relates.

      Notes
      • Section 199B: inserted, on , by section 29 of the Contempt of Court Act 2019 (2019 No 44).