Evidence Act 2006

Evidence from overseas or to be used overseas - Proceedings in Australia and New Zealand - Service of and compliance with New Zealand subpoenas in Australia

157: Expenses

You could also call this:

"Getting paid for costs when you're a witness"

If you are a witness and you get a New Zealand subpoena in Australia, you do not have to follow it unless you get money to cover your expenses. This money is for things like travel and other costs you might have when you comply with the subpoena. You should get this money at the time you get the subpoena or before you have to do what it says.

When a subpoena asks you to produce documents or things, but not to give oral evidence, you can choose to take them to an Australian court. If you do this, you do not have to comply with the subpoena unless you get money to cover your expenses. These expenses include the cost of taking the documents or things to the Australian court and sending them to the New Zealand court that issued the subpoena.

The money to cover your expenses should be paid or given to you at the right time, which is when you get the subpoena or at a reasonable time before you have to comply with it, as explained by the term appropriate time. You can find more information about this by looking at the link to related legislation.

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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=DLM394246.

Topics:

Crime and justice > Courts and legal help

156: Service of subpoena, or

"How to give someone a subpoena when they are in another country"

158: Payment of additional amounts to witness, or

"Getting extra money if you're a witness from Australia"

Part 4Evidence from overseas or to be used overseas
Proceedings in Australia and New Zealand: Service of and compliance with New Zealand subpoenas in Australia

157Expenses

A witness on whom a New Zealand subpoena has been served in Australia is not required to comply with the subpoena unless, at the appropriate time, allowances and travelling expenses or vouchers in substitution for allowances and travelling expenses sufficient to meet the witness’s reasonable expenses of complying with the subpoena are paid or given to the witness.
Subsection (3) applies to a witness on whom a New Zealand subpoena has been served in Australia that requires the witness to produce documents or things, but does not require the witness to give oral evidence.
A witness to whom this subsection applies who elects to comply with the subpoena by producing the documents or things at an Australian court, is not required to comply with the subpoena unless, at the appropriate time, expenses sufficient to meet the witness’s reasonable expenses of producing the documents or things to an Australian court and the expenses of transmitting the documents or things to the New Zealand court that issued the subpoena are paid or given to the witness.
In this section, the appropriate time means the time of service of the subpoena or at some other reasonable time before the witness is required to comply with it.

Compare

1994 No 31 s 8