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Contract and Commercial Law Act 2017

Contracts legislation - Minors’ contracts - Special rules for contracts of service and life insurance contracts

93: Court may make orders about unconscionable, harsh, or oppressive contract of service or life insurance contract

You could also call this:

“Court can help if your work or life insurance contract is unfair”

If you enter into a contract for work or life insurance when you’re young, the court can help protect you if the deal wasn’t fair. The court can do this if they think you didn’t get enough in return for what you promised to do, or if any part of the contract was too harsh on you.

If the court decides the contract wasn’t fair, they can do different things to help. They might cancel the whole contract, say that parts of it don’t apply to you, or decide that you don’t have to follow it at all. The court can also order that you get money or property to make things right.

When the court is deciding if a contract was fair, they can look at how similar contracts usually work. This helps them understand if your contract was normal or if it was too unfair.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM6844204.

Topics:
Money and consumer rights > Consumer protection Business > Fair trading
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92: Contracts of service and life insurance contracts have effect as if minor were of full age, or

"Contracts for jobs and life insurance work like adult contracts for young people"

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94: Sections 92 and 93 do not apply in certain circumstances, or

"Sometimes the rules for young people's contracts don't count"

Part 2 Contracts legislation
Minors’ contracts: Special rules for contracts of service and life insurance contracts

93Court may make orders about unconscionable, harsh, or oppressive contract of service or life insurance contract

  1. This section applies if the court is satisfied in respect of a contract to which section 92 applies that, at the time the contract was entered into,—

  2. the consideration for a minor’s promise or act was so inadequate as to be unconscionable; or
    1. any provision of the contract that imposes an obligation on a party to the contract who was a minor was harsh or oppressive.

      1. The court—

      2. may, in the course of any proceeding or on application made for the purpose, cancel the contract, decline to enforce the contract against the minor, or declare that the contract is unenforceable against the minor, whether in whole or in part; and
        1. in any case may make an order for compensation or restitution of property under section 95 that it thinks just.

          1. For the purposes of this section, the court may receive evidence of commercial practice in contracts of the same kind.

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