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Fair Trading Act 1986

Enforcement and remedies - Civil proceedings

46: Finding in proceedings to be evidence

You could also call this:

“Court findings from earlier cases can be used as evidence in new cases”

If you’re involved in a legal case where someone wants to get an order against you under section 43, there’s something important you should know. If a court has already found that you did something wrong in an earlier case, that finding can be used as evidence in this new case.

The earlier case could have been about getting an injunction (which is like an order to stop doing something) under section 41, or it could have been about getting an order under section 40A or 42. It might even have been a case where you were accused of breaking the law under section 40.

As long as the earlier case was in the High Court or the District Court, and it found that you did something that section 43 talks about, then that finding can be used as evidence in this new case. The court doesn’t have to prove it all over again.

To show this earlier finding in the new case, they just need to bring a document with the court’s seal on it. This document will say what the court found in the earlier case. The new court will accept this as evidence, unless you can prove it’s not true.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM97317.

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Part 5 Enforcement and remedies
Civil proceedings

46Finding in proceedings to be evidence

  1. In any application for an order against a person under section 43, a finding of any fact made in proceedings for an injunction under section 41 or for an order under section 40A or section 42, or for an offence under section 40, being proceedings before the High Court or the District Court in which that person was found to have engaged in conduct of the kind referred to in section 43(1)(a) to (e) is prima facie evidence of that fact and the finding may be proved by production of a document under the seal of the High Court or the District Court, as the case may be, in which the finding was made.

Notes
  • Section 46: amended, on , by section 261 of the District Court Act 2016 (2016 No 49).
  • Section 46: amended, on , by section 34 of the Fair Trading Amendment Act 2013 (2013 No 143).
  • Section 46: amended, on , by section 13 of the Fair Trading Amendment Act 2003 (2003 No 31).