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Contempt of Court Act 2019

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

16: Certain court orders and undertakings may be enforced

You could also call this:

"The court can make you follow its rules and punish you if you don't."

Illustration for Contempt of Court Act 2019

If you do not follow a court order, the court can take action against you. A court order is when a court tells you to do or not do something. The court can enforce the order if you do not follow it.

You can be made to follow a court order if someone applies to the court. This can be the person who asked for the order, someone who benefits from the order, or the Solicitor-General if it is in the public interest. The Solicitor-General is a lawyer who works for the government.

Before the court takes action, it must consider other ways to make you follow the order. The court must be sure that you knew about the order and that you did not have a good reason for not following it. If the court is sure, it can take action against you, such as giving you a fine or sending you to prison.

The court can give you a fine of up to $25,000 if you are an individual, or up to $100,000 if you are a company. You can also be sent to prison for up to six months. In some cases, the court can order you to do community work.

If you do not follow a court order, you can still be in trouble even if the court takes action against you. This means that you will still have to follow the order, and you can get in more trouble if you do not. The court can take action against you more than once if you keep not following the order.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS24822.

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Part 2Provisions to promote and facilitate administration of justice
Enforcement of certain court orders

16Certain court orders and undertakings may be enforced

  1. This section applies to—

  2. any interim or final order, decision, decree, direction, or judgment of a court (a court order) to do or abstain from doing something, except as provided in section 17:
    1. any undertaking given to the court if, on the faith of the undertaking, the court has sanctioned a particular course of action or inaction.

      1. A court may enforce the court order or undertaking against the party, non-party, or other person bound by the order or undertaking by taking action provided for in subsections (3) and (4) on application by—

      2. the party who sought the order or undertaking being enforced; or
        1. a person who benefits from, or has an interest under, the order or undertaking; or
          1. the Solicitor-General, if the Solicitor-General is satisfied that there is a high degree of public interest in enforcing the order or undertaking.

            1. The court—

            2. must not proceed further under this section unless it is satisfied that other methods of enforcing the court order or undertaking have been considered and are inappropriate or have been tried unsuccessfully; and
              1. if so satisfied, must make a finding as to whether it is proved beyond reasonable doubt that—
                1. the court order or undertaking being enforced has been made in clear and unambiguous terms and is clearly binding on the person; and
                  1. the person had knowledge or proper notice of the terms of the court order or undertaking being enforced; and
                    1. the person has, without reasonable excuse, knowingly failed to comply with the court order or undertaking being enforced.

                    2. On finding beyond reasonable doubt that the requirements of subsection (3)(b)(i) to (iii) are met, the court may—

                    3. do any of the following:
                      1. issue a warrant committing the person or a director or an officer of the body corporate, as the case may be, to a term of imprisonment not exceeding 6 months:
                        1. impose a fine,—
                          1. in the case of an individual, not exceeding $25,000; or
                            1. in the case of a body corporate, not exceeding $100,000:
                            2. order the individual or a director or an officer of the body corporate, as the case may be, to do community work, not exceeding 200 hours, as the court thinks fit:
                            3. if the court is the High Court, make a sequestration order in accordance with the rules of court.

                              1. An applicant may apply under subsection (2) on 1 or more occasions to enforce the same court order or undertaking, and the court may take further action under subsections (3) and (4) as it thinks necessary to enforce the order or undertaking.

                              2. Any enforcement action under this section does not operate to extinguish or affect the liability of the person to comply with a court order or an undertaking.