3.5 Unreported cases - file number citation (including the High Court and District Court)
When citing an unreported decision of a court other than the Supreme Court or Court of Appeal, use the following format as there is no official neutral citation:
|
Element |
Case name |
Court abbrev |
Registry |
File number |
Date of judgment |
Pinpoint |
|
Example |
R v Tuhou |
HC |
Napier |
CRI-2007-020-2820, |
11 September 2008 |
at [13] |
|
Rule |
Eg R v Tuhou HC Napier CRI-2007-020-2820, 11 September 2008 at [13].
(a) See above
Give the case name and pinpoint in accordance with the relevant rules for reported judgments: see rules 3.2.1 and 3.2.8 above.
(a) Abbreviations
Use an abbreviation to identify the court that decided the case. Use "HC" for the High Court, "DC" for the District Court and "FC" for the "Family Court".
Eg R v Kahui HC Auckland CRI-2006-057-1135, 12 October 2007.
Eg Hard to Find But Worth the Effort Quality Second Hand Books (Wellington) Ltd v He DC Wellington CIV-2005-085-632, 21 August 2006.
Eg KAB v PRJ FC Tauranga FAM-2008-070-1800, 17 February 2009.
(a) Full name
Identify the relevant court registry by writing out the location in full. Do not use abbreviations.
(a) Current format
Give the court file number after the registry abbreviation. The file number is followed by a comma to separate it from the date.
The current format for High Court, District Court and Family Court file numbers is XXX-YYYY-CCC-NNNNNN. Each of the four components provides specific information.
XXX indicates the jurisdiction: CIV (civil); CRI (criminal); and FAM (family).
YYYY indicates the year. This is always four digits long, eg 2005.
CCC is the court identification number and is always three digits long. The first digit denotes the court jurisdiction: 0 = District Court; 2 = Youth Court; and 4 = High Court. The next two digits are a unique registry number. For example, 85 is the Wellington registry number. Accordingly, 085 indicates the Wellington District Court and 485 the Wellington High Court.
NNNNN is a unique case number and may be up to six digits long. Omit any leading zeros. For example, 001358 should be 1358.
Separate each component of the registry number by a hyphen, even where the original judgment uses a space or runs the components together.
Eg Plot Ltd v Brereton HC Christchurch CIV-2007-409-2659, 17 January 2008.
NOT Plot Ltd v Brereton HC Christchurch CIV 2007 409 002659, 17 January 2008.
(b) Old formats
When citing an older unreported case that uses an earlier file number format, cite the file number as it appears on the original copy of the judgment, except that if the file number includes "no", this should be removed. Do not include a space between any letters and numbers that make up the file number.
Eg Molloy v Molloy HC Auckland CP106/99, 10 June 1999.
(c) Multiple numbers
Where a case has multiple file numbers, only include the first number in the citation.
Eg Williams v Jones HC Auckland CIV-2003-404-6565, 10 February 2005.
(a) Date of judgment
Give the date of judgment after the file number. Write the month out in full without abbreviations and give all four digits of the year.
Where judgment and reasons for judgment are given separately, give the date of the issue of the reasons for judgment. This applies even where the judgment has later been recalled and reissued at a later date.