Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006

Complaints and discipline - Intervention in practice

171: Offences

You could also call this:

"Breaking the law by not giving a lawyer's records to a Standards Committee when asked"

Illustration for Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006

You commit an offence if you have records or documents belonging to a lawyer and you refuse to give them to a Standards Committee when they ask for them for the purposes of section 169 or section 170. If you do this without a good reason, you are doing something wrong. You can be fined up to $25,000 if you are found guilty.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM366714.

This page was last updated on 4 January 2026 — View changes

Topics:

Crime and justice > Courts and legal helpCrime and justice > Criminal lawMoney and consumer rights > Consumer protection

170: Power in relation to postal articles and email communications, or

"Getting notices to hand over emails or mail"

172: Warrant to search premises, or

"A court order to search someone's property"

Part 7Complaints and discipline
Intervention in practice

171Offences

Every person commits an offence against this Act who, having possession or control of any records or documents belonging to a practitioner or former practitioner or any related person or entity or held in a practitioner's or former practitioner's or related person's or entity's possession or under a practitioner's or former practitioner's or related person's or entity's control in the course of the practitioner's or former practitioner's or related person's or entity's practice, refuses or fails without lawful justification or excuse to deliver them or cause them to be delivered to a Standards Committee forthwith on demand made by that Standards Committee for the purposes of section 169 or section 170.
Every person who commits an offence against this section is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $25,000.

Compare

1982 No 123 s 87(a)

Notes

Section 171(2): amended, on 1 July 2013, by section 413 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2011 (2011 No 81).