You can search NZLII using the search box on the front page.

You can search specific databases from the front page of any of the databases or from any case within that database -

Database Search | Name Search | Recent Decisions | Noteup | LawCite | Download | Help

You can also search from the dedicated search form

The search form allows you to choose to search over everything on NZLII or just all the cases, or all the legislative databases etc. All Primary Materials means all legislation and cases but not the Journals or "Other" databases.

PUT SCREENSHOT IN OF PULLDOWN SEARCH OPTIONS

The arrow by Find using autosearch gives you a range of options of how to search including using the normal boolean operators. This allows you, for instance to specify bail AND NOT electronic (please note, most bail cases are not on NZLII due to suppression issues)

When you do a search, you are fundamentally searching for documents which contain some words or phrases. If you can come up with a phrase which you think is distinctive enough, just type it in and hit the return key.

If you want more than one phrase or word to appear in the retrieved documents, put an and between them. For example, to find documents containing the phrase "moral rights" as well as the word "copyright", you would type: "moral rights" and copyright.

If you want to find one term and/or another one, put an or between them. For example, to find documents that contain the words "treaty", "convention" or "international agreement" you would search for: treaty or convention or "international agreement".

If you want to find two words or phrases which appear close to each other (for example, the parties to a case), you can use the near connector. If you wanted to find cases where Smith sued (or was sued by) Brown, you might type: "smith near brown".

Searching for singular words will automatically search for plurals - so a search for Treaty will automatically search for Treaties.

-- Main.JudiEathorneGould - 10 May 2025