New Zealand Acts

TRANS-TASMAN PROCEEDINGS ACT 2010 - SECT 84

84 High Court may set aside subpoena issued in New Zealand proceeding

1 On application, the High Court may set aside an order of subpoena issued by the High Court requiring the attendance of a person in Australia to give evidence or to produce documents to the High Court for the purposes of a New Zealand proceeding.

2 An application under subsection (1) must be made by the person served with the order of subpoena and may be made ex parte.

3 Without limiting the grounds on which the order of subpoena may be set aside, the High Court may set the order aside on any of the following grounds:

a) that the witness does not have, and cannot reasonably be expected to obtain, the necessary travel documents:

b) that the witness is liable to be detained for the purpose of serving a sentence:

c) that the witness is liable to prosecution for an offence:

d) that the witness is liable to the imposition of a penalty in civil proceedings, not being proceedings for a pecuniary penalty under section 80 or 83 of the Commerce Act 1986:

e) that the evidence of the witness can be obtained without significantly greater expense by other means:

f) that compliance with the order of subpoena would cause hardship or serious inconvenience to the witness:

g) in the case of an order of subpoena that requires a witness to produce documents, whether or not it also requires the witness to give evidence, that the court is satisfied that the documents should not be taken out of Australia and that evidence of the contents of the documents can be given by other means.

4 Every application to set aside an order of subpoena under subsection (1) must be made by affidavit.

5 The affidavit must—

a) be sworn by the applicant; and

b) set out the facts on which the applicant relies; and

c) be filed in the office of the court that issued the order of subpoena.

6 The Registrar of the court must ensure that a copy of the affidavit is served on the solicitor on the record for the party to the proceedings who obtained the order of subpoena, or, if there is no solicitor on the record, on that party.

Note: 1908 No 89 s 56G

History: Section 84: inserted, on 1 March 2017, by section 8 of the Trans-Tasman Proceedings Amendment Act 2016 (2016 No 70).