MEDIA RELEASE

23 July 1999

INTERNET ACCESS TO JUDGMENTS ANNOUNCED

The Minister for Courts, Hon Georgina te Heuheu, today announced that New Zealand Court judgments would be made available free of charge over the Internet.

The first step is to provide full text copies of Court of Appeal judgments. High Court and District Court judgments will eventually also be made available.

"This new initiative means that many more people will be able to access Court judgments more quickly and easily than at present," Mrs te Heuheu said.

"The primary function of the Department for Courts is to support the Judiciary in assuring access to justice for the people of New Zealand. Making judgments available over the Internet makes it easier for the public to have access to the law and the work of the Courts."

Judgments will be available via the Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII) website which provides free Internet access to Australasian legal materials. AustLII is one of the largest sources of legal materials on the Internet, with over a million searchable documents and is used by over 20,000 people each working day.

AustLII users span the whole community, including educational institutions (about 30%), the legal profession and business (25%), community organisations (15%), government (10%), and 20% from outside Australasia.

The service will be available from today, with Court of Appeal judgments from June 1999 onwards being available, at http://www.austlii.edu.au. Inclusion of an archive of judgments from before June 1999 is being investigated.

ENDS

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