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Contempt of Court Act 2019

Provisions to promote and facilitate administration of justice - Enforcement of certain court orders

17: Jurisdiction to take certain action under section 16

You could also call this:

"What happens if you don't follow a court order to pay money or give back land"

Illustration for Contempt of Court Act 2019

If you do not pay a sum of money as ordered by a court, the court can take action under section 16, but only if the reason you did not pay is listed in section 3(2) of the Imprisonment for Debt Limitation Act 1908 or the money is held by someone else. The court can take this action if the money is held by a person, trust, or entity other than you. You can find more information about this in section 3(2) of the Imprisonment for Debt Limitation Act 1908.

If a court orders you to give back some land and you do not, only the High Court can take action under section 16 to get the land back. This is a special power that only the High Court has. The High Court can use this power to enforce the court order and recover the land.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS147577.

Topics:
Crime and justice > Courts and legal helpHousing and property > Land use
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Part 2Provisions to promote and facilitate administration of justice
Enforcement of certain court orders

17Jurisdiction to take certain action under section 16

  1. A court may take action under section 16 to enforce a court order to pay a sum of money only if the default in making payment is within an exception listed in section 3(2) of the Imprisonment for Debt Limitation Act 1908 or the order applies to money held by a person, trust, or entity other than the defaulter.

  2. Only the High Court may take action under section 16 to enforce a court order for the recovery of land.