New Zealand Legal Information Institute (NZLII) is a free online database of unreported New Zealand Court and Tribunal judgments used by legal and library professionals in Aotearoa and worldwide.
It is a joint project of the University of Otago Faculty of Law, the University of Canterbury, and the Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII). AustLII has provided technical services and infrastructure since NZLII’s establishment in 2004.
Our strength is that our information is anonymous and free,” says Judi Eathorne-Gould, NZLII Manager. Judi has degrees in law and history. “We convert documents into HTML to be searchable and used without downloading a whole PDF. Our site might be ugly – it hasn’t changed since 2004 – but it loads quickly, and we don’t have the money to spend on fancy design. We’re here to provide this information for free.”
People are finding the information they need on NZLII and the number of visits shows this. In 2023, there were 34 million site visits to the 218 databases containing 565,000 documents. NZLII holds the only digitised versions of some legal documents. The NZLII is part of the Free Access to Law Movement (FALM), an international voluntary association with members from over 60 organisations worldwide. FALM members provide and support free access to legal information consistent with the movement's principles and subscribe to the Declaration on Free Access to Law to promote justice and the rule of law. Free and untracked information is a major principle of the FALM.
However, NZLII’s existence is precarious. The Institute relies on donations and grants, and there is concern that it would be vulnerable without secure funding and support. If it were to collapse, there would be a significant gap in the availability of critical information widely accessed by the legal profession, libraries, members of the public, and government.
“The New Zealand Council of Law Reporting is our biggest funder, and we would not be able to exist without them. We use our other donations to support our operations and to update the database, which we employ law students to do. We are extremely vulnerable, and our donations are majorly down this year.”
While funds cover some of the staff contributions, extra funds would allow more paid hours for contributing additional material to NZLII for the benefit of all. NZLII are open to suggestions and donations to allow this. The site also contains material of interest to non-lawyers – particularly the historical and genealogical information in the Government Gazettes and Book of Awards. Most case law in New Zealand is tied up in subscription sites such as LexisNexis and Thompson Reuters.
“These are expensive sites, and many law firms, provincial lawyers, and members of the public can’t afford to subscribe to them. NZLII access helps to keep legal costs down and allows self-supporting litigants access to free information to support themselves.”
While the technical base is in Australia, this is a New Zealand branded information source. Good data relationships have been established with different data providers, such as the Ministry of Justice Tribunals Unit and the Parliamentary Counsel Office. New relationships are being developed, such as the Wellington City Council, as District Licensing Committee decisions must be available to the public. In 2023, the DLCs on NZLII received over 2 million uses.
If I could afford to do it, I would pay someone to fix the database so we can display macrons correctly—this is a coding issue. The Government Gazettes get five million views a year. If we had more funding, we could add other historical gazettes onto our database - they have been scanned, but we do not have the resources to add them to the site.” Supporting better access to free legal information could see the Institute providing more guides on the court system, information that would be easily understood by the public. It could also see the uploading of anonymised decisions by the Tenancy Tribunal and guides for tenants and landlords.
“People use us because they know we are anonymous, not tied to government, and free. We can’t be everything on this level of funding support though.” If you are interested in donating to this service, you can go here:
It is a joint project of the University of Otago Faculty of Law, the University of Canterbury, and the Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII). AustLII has provided technical services and infrastructure since NZLII’s establishment in 2004.
Our strength is that our information is anonymous and free,” says Judi Eathorne-Gould, NZLII Manager. Judi has degrees in law and history. “We convert documents into HTML to be searchable and used without downloading a whole PDF. Our site might be ugly – it hasn’t changed since 2004 – but it loads quickly, and we don’t have the money to spend on fancy design. We’re here to provide this information for free.”
People are finding the information they need on NZLII and the number of visits shows this. In 2023, there were 34 million site visits to the 218 databases containing 565,000 documents. NZLII holds the only digitised versions of some legal documents. The NZLII is part of the Free Access to Law Movement (FALM), an international voluntary association with members from over 60 organisations worldwide. FALM members provide and support free access to legal information consistent with the movement's principles and subscribe to the Declaration on Free Access to Law to promote justice and the rule of law. Free and untracked information is a major principle of the FALM.
However, NZLII’s existence is precarious. The Institute relies on donations and grants, and there is concern that it would be vulnerable without secure funding and support. If it were to collapse, there would be a significant gap in the availability of critical information widely accessed by the legal profession, libraries, members of the public, and government.
“The New Zealand Council of Law Reporting is our biggest funder, and we would not be able to exist without them. We use our other donations to support our operations and to update the database, which we employ law students to do. We are extremely vulnerable, and our donations are majorly down this year.”
While funds cover some of the staff contributions, extra funds would allow more paid hours for contributing additional material to NZLII for the benefit of all. NZLII are open to suggestions and donations to allow this. The site also contains material of interest to non-lawyers – particularly the historical and genealogical information in the Government Gazettes and Book of Awards. Most case law in New Zealand is tied up in subscription sites such as LexisNexis and Thompson Reuters.
“These are expensive sites, and many law firms, provincial lawyers, and members of the public can’t afford to subscribe to them. NZLII access helps to keep legal costs down and allows self-supporting litigants access to free information to support themselves.”
While the technical base is in Australia, this is a New Zealand branded information source. Good data relationships have been established with different data providers, such as the Ministry of Justice Tribunals Unit and the Parliamentary Counsel Office. New relationships are being developed, such as the Wellington City Council, as District Licensing Committee decisions must be available to the public. In 2023, the DLCs on NZLII received over 2 million uses.
If I could afford to do it, I would pay someone to fix the database so we can display macrons correctly—this is a coding issue. The Government Gazettes get five million views a year. If we had more funding, we could add other historical gazettes onto our database - they have been scanned, but we do not have the resources to add them to the site.” Supporting better access to free legal information could see the Institute providing more guides on the court system, information that would be easily understood by the public. It could also see the uploading of anonymised decisions by the Tenancy Tribunal and guides for tenants and landlords.
“People use us because they know we are anonymous, not tied to government, and free. We can’t be everything on this level of funding support though.” If you are interested in donating to this service, you can go here:
- For credit card NZLII or by direct deposit (this is a link to a PDF form that can be filled out and emailed to NZLII but also includes the direct deposit information).
- LIANZA is working with the New Zealand Law Librarians Association in their attempts to find secure and sustainable support for the NZLII.
RSS Feed