Plain language law

New Zealand law explained for everyone

Contract and Commercial Law Act 2017

Contracts legislation - Illegal contracts - Court may grant relief

80: Person acting with knowledge of facts or law giving rise to illegality

You could also call this:

“The court can still help you if you made a mistake, even if you knew it was wrong”

The court can help you even if you knew you were doing something against the law when you made an agreement or did something wrong. This means the court can still give you relief under section 76, which is another part of the law.

However, if you knew what you were doing was wrong, the court will think about that when they decide how to help you. They will consider your knowledge when they use their power to make a decision under section 76.

This text is automatically generated. It might be out of date or be missing some parts. Find out more about how we do this.

This page was last updated on

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM6844180.

Topics:
Crime and justice > Courts and legal help Business > Fair trading
Previous

79: Court must not grant relief if not in public interest, or

"Court can't help if it's not good for everyone"

Next

81: Persons who may apply, or

"Who can ask the court for help with a contract"

Part 2 Contracts legislation
Illegal contracts: Court may grant relief

80Person acting with knowledge of facts or law giving rise to illegality

  1. The court may make an order under section 76 even if the person granted relief entered into the contract, or committed an unlawful act or unlawfully omitted to do an act, with knowledge of the facts or law giving rise to the illegality.

  2. However, the court must take that knowledge into account in exercising its discretion under section 76.

Compare