Explanatory note
This note is not part of the regulations, but is intended to indicate their general effect.
New regulation 6A of the principal regulations will allow the Family Court, District Court, or High Court dealing with a CoCA proceeding (as defined in regulation 3 of the principal regulations) to obtain more information about a party’s criminal offending. In particular, the court will be able to obtain—
information about any offence a party has been charged with, or convicted of, involving family violence (as defined in the Family Violence Act 2018) that is committed against any person with whom the party is, or has been, in a family relationship (as so defined, and the offence does not have to have been committed against a person seeking the protection of, or protected by, a protection order):
information about that offending held electronically and on the permanent court record, as well as on the court file.
New regulations 6B and 6C are inserted in the principal regulations to enable a court dealing with a CoCA proceeding to obtain details of—
a party’s criminal record (new regulation 6B); and
a party’s current address for the purpose of serving a document issued for service in the proceeding (new regulation 6C).
Regulation 7 of the principal regulations is about information about a respondent’s criminal offending being available to the court dealing with a family violence proceeding (which is a proceeding in the Family Court under the Family Violence Act 2018 in which an application for a protection order is pending or has been granted). The regulation is amended so that it, like that Act, refers to a family relationship (within the meaning of section 12 of that Act).
Regulations 3(1), 7, 7A, 8, and 8A are also amended to reflect the changes made by the District Court Act 2016. That Act reconstituted the District Courts as a unitary court with a division known as the Family Court. Consequently, various references in those regulations to “a court”
need to be specifically updated.
Issued under the authority of the Legislation Act 2012.
Date of notification in Gazette: 16 May 2019.
These regulations are administered by the Ministry of Justice.