STRAIT to the future

8th Asia-Pacific Specials, Health and Law Librarians Conference

New Zealand legal material on the internet

Jane Treadwell
Know Where Limited, Auckland, New Zealand

Keywords: Legal Information - New Zealand; Internet - New Zealand; Legal Databases - New Zealand

Abstract

As New Zealand and Australia become increasingly economically closer, more and more Australian law librarians will need access to New Zealand legal and commercial information resources. This paper aims to provide a step-by-step guide in the right direction.

Introduction

This written paper has been designed to act as a reference tool; the actual conference presentation will focus on some of the key New Zealand legal websites and explore their features. The paper has been divided into four parts. Part One outlines all the New Zealand legal information electronic databases presently available on CD-ROM, with contact details for each supplier. Part Two provides details some of the key the New Zealand legal and governmental websites. Part Three details current awareness and the 'alert' services available, and Part Four Three lists the research services available for people needing New Zealand legal information.

Part one - CD-ROM titles

In alphabetical order of supplier this list is current as at 30 April 1999.

Brooker's
Brooker's produce CD ROM libraries which combine a number of their products on related subjects and allow hypertext linking between each database of information. The electronic databases are also available as stand alone products, though for the purposes of this paper only the libraries are discussed. These libraries are:

Brooker's Civil Procedure Library A civil litigator's pot pourri of essential titles which includes McGechan on Procedure, Brooker's Districts Courts Procedure, and the Procedure Reports New Zealand (PRNZ) from volume 1.

Brooker's Criminal Library: Option One - Complete Library which includes Adams on Criminal Law, Summary Proceedings, Brooker's Law of Transportation, Misuse of Drugs and the Criminal Reports of New Zealand (CRNZ) from volume 1. Option Two: Crime Only Titles which includes Adams on Criminal Law, Summary Proceedings, Misuse of Drugs and the Criminal Reports of New Zealand (CRNZ).

Brooker's Commercial Library includes Gault on Commercial Law and Brooker's Commercial Cases. The Commercial Cases include the Trade and Competition Law Reports since 1978 and a selection of other New Zealand cases, full-text, referred to in Gault on Commercial Law.

Brooker's Company Law Libraries:
Company Law Plus which includes five databases (a) Essential Anderson's, core company legislation with commentary (based on volume one of Anderson's Company and Securities Law); (b) Anderson's Plus, related company and securities legislation with commentary (based on volumes two and three of Anderson's Company and Securities Law); (c) Insolvency, personal and corporate insolvency legislation and commentary (based on Brooker's Insolvency Law loose-leaf service); (d) Brooker's Companies and Securities Cases, more than 900 full-text cases; and (e) Company Law Legislation, a comprehensive collection of all company and securities statutes and regulations.

Essential Company Law which includes three databases of from Company Law Plus covering core materials - Essential Anderson's, Brooker's Company and Securities Cases and Company Law Legislation

Brooker's Employment Library: Core Library which includes Employment Contracts, Employment Reports of New Zealand, Employment Headnotes of New Zealand. Complete Library which includes Employment Contracts, Employment Reports of New Zealand, Employment Headnotes of New Zealand, Accident Compensation in New Zealand, and the Workplace Safety and Accidents Handbook

Brooker's Fisheries Law which is the full-text of the Fisheries Law loose-leaf service, including a full commentary on the Fisheries Act 1983 and the Fisheries Act 1996, plus other relevant legislation.

Brooker's Local Government Library which consists of Brooker's Local Government Law, comprising the text of McVeagh's Local Government Law in New Zealand loose-leaf service, and Local Government Cases, with more than 450 full-text cases.

Brooker's Resource Management Library comprises three modules. The Resource Management Module which includes the full-text of Brooker's Resource Management loose-leaf service. The Resource Management Cases and Materials Module which includes more than 1300 full-text cases, press releases and key speeches, reports and practice notes, Bills, etc. The Resource Management Gazette Case Summaries Module which includes more than 2000 case summaries and the Brooker's Resource Management Gazette.

Brooker's Tax Library includes:
SMART Tax which consists of five modules able to be purchased separately or together: (a) Tax I - current legislation; (b) Tax II - bills, pending and archived legislation; (c) Tax III technical information; (d) Tax IV - tax cases; and (e) Tax V - SMART tax commentary.

Tax Edge Plus which is designed for regular users of tax information. It includes current legislation, commentary and Tax Information Bulletins.

Tax Edge designed to be a quick reference tool, this database contains selected income tax and GST legislation with regular commentary updates on recent cases, tax issues etc.

Tax Toolkit 1999 This CD includes the Staples' Guide to New Zealand Tax Practice together with full commentary on income tax and GST legislation, and a complete set of New Zealand tax rates and tables.

New Zealand Building Collection which includes the Building Code Handbook, Building Authority Approved Documents, Building Act 1991, and Building Regulations 199, BIA Determinations and other legislation relevant to building management.

New Zealand Law Partner which includes New Zealand Statutes (including repealed legislation, Local and Private Acts, and Annual Assent Legislation), New Zealand Regulations (including revoked regulations), New Zealand Case Law Digest. It can also be linked to LINX, the legal database produced by the Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch District Law Society Libraries; and BRIEFCASE, the legal database created by Law Library Management Ltd, which indexes New Zealand legal journals and reports back to January 1986.

Brooker's
PO Box 43, Wellington, New Zealand
Tel: +64 4 499 8178, fax: +64 4 499 8173
e-mail: service@brookers.co.nz
Web: http://www.brookers.co.nz

Butterworths of New Zealand Ltd
Butterworths supply several of their loose-leaf services as stand-alone CD Rom databases and some as combination libraries of databases. They can also be networked for several users.

All CD rom products are published using Folio Views and are fully searchable. There are hypertext links within the legislation, the commentary and linking between the two where relevant.

Cross on Evidence is a database of the full-text loose-leaf service of the same name, providing extensive commentary on the law of evidence in New Zealand. The Evidence Act 1908 and other relevant statutory material is consolidated and reproduced in full.

Employment Law Collection which consists of both Mazengarb's Employment Law, a database of the full-text loose-leaf service of the same name; and Personal Grievances, a database of the full-text loose-leaf service of the same name, providing extensive discussion of Part III of the Employment Contracts Act 1991, and The Employment Law Bulletin with issues dating back to January 1997.

Butterworths Family Law Collection which includes commentary and legislation for the Family Law Service and Fisher on Matrimonial Property. The NZ Family Law Reports from 1981, and the Family Law Journal are also available on this CD Rom.

Morison's Company and Securities Law a database of the three volume loose-leaf service of the same name. Volume One contains companies legislation, Volume Two contains topic-by-topic commentary on company law, and includes practice notes and Volume Three contains securities legislation and commentary. Volumes One and Two can be subscribed to separately as Morison's Company Law.

New Zealand Law Reports full-text judgments with headnotes from 1958 to the current issue. The NZLR are hypertext linked to The Laws of New Zealand.

Laws of New Zealand is an encyclopaedic work based on Halsbury's Laws of England but with it's sole focus being New Zealand law - statutory, regulatory and judicial. The Laws of New Zealand are hypertext linked to the New Zealand Law Reports.

Taxbase is separated into three different electronic publications: Taxbase One, Taxbase Two and Taxbase Three.
TAXBASE One contains The Tax Practitioner (a paperback comprehensive guide to New Zealand taxation law) plus The Income Tax Act 1994, Tax Administration Act 1994, Taxation Review Authorities Act 1994 and The Goods and Services Tax Act 1985.
TAXBASE Two contains all of Taxbase One plus Current Taxation, the Inland Revenue Taxation Information Bulletins and the old repealed tax legislation.
TAXBASE Three contains Taxbase Two plus Double Taxation Agreements, Determination and Exemptions, Technical Rulings, headnotes to all tax cases from 1975 and a Guide to Binding Rulings.

Transport Law is the successor to Dixon's Road transport Law and is a database of the two volume loose-leaf service of the same name. This work contains the Land Transport Act 1998, the traffic regulations 1976, and the Land Transport Rules. Transport Law also includes a comprehensive sentencing section, commentary on the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990, and a procedure section on issues associated with traffic prosecutions. In addition, there are many transport related Acts and Regulations as well as vehicle codes produced by the Land Transport Safety Authority.

Butterworths
PO Box 472, Wellington, New Zealand
Tel: +64 4 385 1479, fax: +64 4 385 1598
e-mail: customer.services@butterworths.co.nz
Web: http://www.butterworths.co.nz

CCH New Zealand
CCH is the only New Zealand information provider to supply a single user licence CD Rom database, free of charge, with an annual subscription to the hard copy loose-leaf service.

The CCH Company Law Library bases itself on the five volume New Zealand Company Law and Practice loose-leaf service and includes Company Law Commentary, Company Legislation, Company Cases.

The Electronic Tax Library includes all commentary in the five volume New Zealand Income Tax Law and Practice loose-leaf service, Goods and Services Tax Commentary, Tax Legislation (including GST Legislation, Double Tax Agreements, Regulations, Accrual and Livestock Determinations), IRD Tax Rulings, Tax Information Bulletins, Tax Education Office newsletters, IRD Binding Rulings, and Tax Cases, which has every tax case back to 1973, all of which are headnoted. The subscription also includes the weekly Tax Notes which can be sent by e-mail or fax, and access to Tax Forum, the online tax question and answer format newsletter.

The CCH Guide to Tax is a library of practical Income Tax Commentary, Income Tax Legislation (core tax acts), GST Commentary and Legislation, the IRD's Tax Information Bulletins, tax Education Office newsletters, weekly Tax Notes (e-mail only), Tax Forum (the online question and answer format newsletter) and IRD Binding Rulings.

The annual Master Tax Guide book also includes a free single-user CD Rom database.

CCH New Zealand Ltd
PO Box 2378, Auckland, New Zealand
Tel: +64 9 488 2760, fax: +64 9 489 3312
e-mail: sales@cch.co.nz
Web: http://www.cch.co.nz

Data Services
Data Services' specialise in resource management, environmental and local government law. Their information databases are divided into modules.

The Environmental Databases include:
Environmental Legislation Module - full commentary, case annotations and editorial notes on the main environmental legislation including the Resource Management, Biosecurity, Crown Minerals, Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Acts

Environmental Case Law Module - synopses of all cases since the inception of the Resource Management Act, plus other significant decisions before 1991, totalling more than 3000 headnotes. 70% of the decisions are also full-text and fully searchable.

Full-text Imaged Decisions Module - scanned images of original Court decisions for all cases since the inception of the Resource Management Act, plus significant decisions before 1991. According to Data Services printouts of images are acceptable for presentation in court proceedings.

Environmental History Module - allows users to track history and changes to the legislation since the most recent reprint of the relevant Act.

The Local Government Databases include:
Local Government Legislation Module - more than 100 Acts and Regulations, commentary and case notes relevant to matters relating to the scope of local and regional authorities.

Local Government Case Law Module - synopses of more than 1000 relevant and significant cases, dating back to the 1890s.

Full-text Imaged Decisions Module - scanned images of original Court decisions for all cases within the Local Government Case Law Module. According to Data Services printouts of images are acceptable for presentation in court proceedings.

Local Government History Module - allows users to track history and changes to the legislation since the most recent reprint of the relevant Act.

Data Services
PO Box 33-1125, Takapuna, Auckland, New Zealand
Tel: +64 9 486 0703, fax: +64 9 489 6349
e-mail: cswan@dataservices.co.nz
Web: http://www.lawsite.co.nz/dataservices

Law Library Management
Law Library Management Ltd produces BRIEFCASE an electronic legal database that indexes New Zealand case law in New Zealand legal journals and reports, including reported and unreported judgments from January 1986. BRIEFCASE is available in DB Textworks or, in Folio Views when combined with other publishers' products.

Law Library Management Ltd
PO Box 5694, Wellesley St, Auckland, New Zealand
Tel: +64 9 307 0928, fax: +64 9 373 2991
e-mail: briefcase@compuserve.com
Web: http://www.knowledge-basket.co.nz/briefcase/

LINX Committee
The LINX database commenced in 1986 and consists of a combined database of the holdings of the Auckland, Wellington, and Canterbury District Law Society Libraries including cases, journals and texts. Judgment holdings vary as far back as 1981.

LINX Database Committee
C/o Ms Helga Arlington, Auckland District Law Society Library
PO Box 58, Auckland, New Zealand
Tel: +64 9 303 1040, fax: +64 9
e-mail: helga.arlington@adls.org.nz
Web: http://www.lawsite.co.nz

Status Publishing
Status New Zealand Statutes contains a full-text electronic service of the Public, Local, and Private Acts of New Zealand.

Status Compendium is a resource that cites cases in other legal databases, regardless of source supplier.

Status New Zealand Statutory Regulations contains all current Regulations in force as at 1st January 1993 subsequent to 1936. Status Annual Regulations accompanies annotated Regulations and contains a copy of each Regulation from 1992.

New Zealand Maori Land Court Judgments contains full-text judgments as determined by a committee of the Maori Land Court. Included is an electronic version of the original Tai Whati, its indexes and supplements, together with copies of the Maori Affairs Act, Te Ture Whenua and Maori Land Court Guidebooks.

Status Employment Court Judgments are available as two options: judgments only, or headnotes and judgments. Updated monthly, Status Employment Judgments contains over 11 000 comprehensive headnotes (from 1977 to the present) as prepared by the Court.

Status Privy Council Service contains the full-text of New Zealand Privy Council Judgments from 1982 until the present.

Status Court of Appeal Judgments contains full-text Court of Appeal judgments from 1982.

The Parliamentary Bills Digest is a publication of the Parliamentary Library providing a summary and analysis of selected Bills before the New Zealand Parliament. Status has made it into a searchable database.

Andersen's Income Tax Companion is a quick reference tool for researchers who seek guidance on income tax issues that pertain to particular commercial matters. Focuses on the three entities of companies, trusts and partnerships.

Status Tax Information Bulletins contains the full-text of Inland Revenue Department Tax Information Bulletins from 1989 until the present.

Status IRD Publications includes approx. 80 Inland Revenue Department publications which may be accessed with standard Status tools.

Status Competition Law comprises the full-text of publications from the Commerce Commission. - Decisions, Compliance, Fair's Fair, Media Releases, Speeches, Submissions, and Practice Notes offer a one stop view of the application of Commerce Commission practice in New Zealand.

Status Sentencing Digest: prepared by the Department for Courts, and updated quarterly, the Sentencing Digest is a reference of case law pertinent to sentencing.

Status Offences and Penalties Database is a quick reference of Offences and Penalties embodied in every New Zealand Statute and Regulation.

Status Publishing
PO Box 3169, Christchurch, New Zealand
Tel: +64 3 366 1110, fax: +64 3 366 1119
e-mail: richard@status.co.nz
Web: http://www.status.co.nz

Part two - some key New Zealand legal and governmental websites

Legislation

• GP Legislation Services - http://www.knowledge-basket.co.nz/tkbgp
  This website contains the legislation as passed by Parliament and is unannotated, though available free of charge.
• Brooker's - http://www.knowledge-basket.co.nz/brookers
  User-pays access to an annotated database of statutes and regulations.
• Status Publishing - http://www.status.co.nz or http://www.knowledge-basket.co.nz/statuspub
  User-pays access to an annotated database of statutes and regulations. Note that the Annual Statutes and Regulations are available for free-of-charge viewing on the Status website, http://www.status.co.nz

Governmental information

• Parliamentary Information - http://www.parliament.govt.nz
  Includes information on the House and its Committees, MPs and Ministries etc.
• Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives - http://www.clerk.parliament.govt.nz
  Link to The Clerk of the House's pages and find out what's on the Order Paper, who is sitting on which Select Committee, what business is before each Select Committee etc.
• Government Information - http://www.govt.nz
  Access via the "Agencies Contacts" link to an alphabetical list, including website links, to Ministries and Government Departments
• Local Government Information - http://www.govt.nz/bpsrch/contlist.phtml?section=LG
  Access to the websites of most New Zealand local government and regional authorities websites.

Judgment sources - via the internet

• Brooker's Court of Appeal decisions - http://www.brookers.co.nz
  Full-text Court of Appeal decisions from November 1995, free to search
• CCH '>From the Courts' - http://www.cch.co.nz
  CCH headnotes recent tax cases. They are not intended to be comprehensive. They provide a 'ring up and request' service for supply of the decisions at NZ$30 + fax charges.
• Data Services' Environment law decisions - http://www.lawsite.co.nz/dataservices
  Data Services provide user-pays access to keyworded headnotes of the latest decisions on environmental law from the Environment, District, High Courts and Court of Appeal. Purchase of scanned images of original Court decisions, downloadable as Adobe PDF files, is also available. Pre-registration is required.
• Status' Unreported Case Databases - http://www.status.co.nz
  Status' large collection of unreported decisions databases (as outlined in Part One) are available for user-pays access. The Status website also hosts the Commerce Commission Decisions database, and Data Services Environmental Digest and Law Reports database.
• Law Library Management's BRIEFCASE database - http://www.knowledge-basket.co.nz/briefcase/ or http://www.status.co.nz (note that this database does not contain full-text decisions)
  Details as outlined in Part One.
• LINX Database - http://www.lawsite.co.nz or http://www.status.co.nzor http://www.knowledge-basket.co.nz/linx (note that this database does not contain full-text decisions)
  Details as outlined in Part One.

Commercial information

• Ministry of Commerce's Business and Registries Branch - http://www.companies.govt.nz
  This site provides access to the:
  • NZ Companies Office databases including current name search, director, shareholder or address search, historic name search and document registration.
  • National Insolvency database, contains information on Official Assignee-administered personal bankruptcies and company liquidations.
  • Motor Vehicle Securities Register's Autocheck service allows prospective buyers to determine whether there is any money owing on a vehicle.
  • Trade Marks database of patents, registers trade marks and designs originating in New Zealand and
  • an Information Library of related documents.
  The following services are available free of charge: Summary company information, Auto Check (search results), Summary Trade Mark information (all users), Detailed Trade Mark information (registered users only).
• Terranet - http://www.terranet.co.nz
  Terranet provides instant access to detailed property information in New Zealand, including:
  
  • Order Documents - including Certificates of Title and Plans.
  • Property Finder - key property information on New Zealand land parcels.
  • Title Reporter - detailed information as recorded on the Certificate of Title.
  • Title Transaction Reporter - details of all instruments (documents and plans).
  • Cadastral Reporter - information on the cadastral record.
  • Valuation and Sales History - government valuations, tenure and ownership, building condition and sales history.

Media

• Newsroom - http://www.newsroom.co.nz
  Newsroom is a real-time interactive New Zealand news station providing news in the specific categories of 'politics', 'elections', 'business', 'education', 'science' and 'general'. It also has a 'top stories' category and an excellent 'media monitor' which provides short précis of the hourly news bulletins from radio, news bulletins from television news and an overview of the headlines in the print media. The website is free to scan, but searching the archived database is user-pays.
• NZPA - http://www.knowledge-basket.co.nz/nzpa
  The NZPA database is another news and information real-time database. The newswire sources include NZPA, AAP, AP, KRT, AFP Reuters and others. The database covers the period from January 1 1994 and now contains more than 700 000 items. User-pays access only.

Legal and commercial information portal

• The Knowledge Basket - http://www.knowledge-basket.co.nz
  The Knowledge Basket is recognised as one the key meta sites for new Zealand legal and commercial information. It has an extensive collection of third-party suppliers' databases and acts as host to a range of free access and user-pays material. The databases include:
  
  • Bill Digest - summarised contents of the Bills before Parliament since 1998 (user-pays)
  • BRIEFCASE - index to published New Zealand case law since 1986 (user-pays)
  • Brooker's - consolidated New Zealand statutes and regulations (user-pays)
  • DATEX - a business and financial information service (some free access, some user-pays)
  • GP Legislation - unannotated but free access Statutes. User-pays access to Regulations, Bills, and Hansard (some free access, some user-pays)
  • Health and Disability Commissioner - rulings and information from the HDC (free access)
  • Institute of Chartered Accountants of New Zealand - extensive database of holdings with some journal articles headnoted (user-pays)
  • LINX - combined database of the Auckland, Wellington and Canterbury District Law Society libraries (user-pays)
  • NZPA Newswire - real-time news articles since December 1993 (user-pays)
  • Newspaper Index - comprehensive index to New Zealand newspapers (user-pays)
  • NEWZINDEX - comprehensive index to New Zealand's key business publications (user-pays)
  • NEWZTEXT - and archive of full-text news and business publications (user-pays)
  • NZ Doctor - fortnightly newspaper for family doctors since January 1996 (user-pays)
  • NZ Science - comprehensive index to New Zealand Science (user-pays)
  • NZ Law Librarians Group Inc - website of the NZLLG Inc including conference papers, links to key national and international legal sites (free access)
  • Office of the Privacy Commissioner - rulings, guidelines, codes, press releases and other information from the Privacy Commissioner (free access)
  • Radio New Zealand - real-time transcripts of all Radio New Zealand news stories since October 1996 (user-pays)
  • Refugee Law - a searchable database of all the decisions of New Zealand's Refugee Status Appeals Authority (RSAA), the full-text of leading decisions and Practice Notes of the RSAA. Abstracts of New Zealand High Court and Court of Appeal cases dealing with refugee issues are separately provided (free access)
  • Status Publishing - comprehensive databases of legislative materials and case law databases (user-pays)
  • Waitangi Tribunal Reports - full-text Waitangi Tribunal Reports (free access)

Part three - current awareness and 'alert' services

Brooker's - http://www.brookers.co.nz
Insite is a user-pays service providing access to Daily News and ALERT. Daily News is an e-mail alert service of legal and tax news, case summaries, legislative updates and other recent developments. There are two subscription options: one is to receive a daily e-mail; the other is to subscribe to the archived material on the website. ALERT is a weekly newsletter on developments in tax, financial reporting, auditing, company law and more. A subscription to ALERT allows access to the archived material in the ALERT database and a hard copy newsletter which is mailed to subscribers each Monday.

CCH - http://www.cch.co.nz
e-mail notification of updates from CCH's Tax Forum and Infoline - a collection of articles on taxation issues - and from 'From the Courts' - headnotes of recent tax cases of interest . Access to the articles and headnotes is free, though full-text tax cases are available for order at a cost of NZ$30.

Newsroom - http://www.newsroom.co.nz
Newsroom offers two e-mail alert services. One is the user-pays NewsMail News Service. NewsMail is a real-time e-mail news service and includes unlimited use of the NewsRoom search engine to access archives of more than 25 000 items.

The other is the free daily e-mail service, NewsRoom Today, which lets subscribers know the essentials of what's in the news in New Zealand. NewsRoom Today delivers one e-mail a day on the latest news and provides further details on when to get more information on any news events mentioned.

Knowledge Agents from the knowledge basket - www.knowledge-basket.co.nz
Knowledge Agents deliver, either by fax or e-mail, targeted information from authorised news sources on subjects, topics, and keywords of your choice. The Knowledge Agents are 'Topics' which describe a subject or concept of interest. The concepts are described in terms of keywords, keyword relationships, weights, and threshold scores. Once completed, the Topic is coupled with a "Watcher" program, and told to watch incoming documents (news stories, pieces of legislation). As each item arrives, it is indexed by the Topic Internet Server in real-time, and items that match the Topic are scored. If the relevance threshold score is exceeded, it is e-mailed direct to your e-mail address.

The Agent service is available for all information sources on The Knowledge Basket, and a single Agent can watch many information sources simultaneously.

Knowledge Basket staff, with the help of the database suppliers, have created a series of comprehensive Agents:

• Energy Industry
• Forest Industry
• Telecommunications Industry
• Taxation
• Aviation Industry
• Ministerial Press Releases
• New Appointment
• Legislation Alert

It is also possible to create an Agent to suit personal or organisational requirements.

Part four - research services available

Auckland District Law Society (ADLS)
High Court Building, PO Box 58, Auckland, New Zealand
Tel: +64 9 303 1040, fax: +64 9 303 3359, e-mail: research@adls.org.nz

The library's policy is to support the day-to-day reference and research needs of practitioners. The collection includes most New Zealand law texts, all current New Zealand law report series and a selection of journals.

An extensive unreported judgments collection includes Court of Appeal decisions from 1962 and Auckland High Court decisions from 1983, with Hamilton High Court decisions from 1989.

Law library staff offer a research and document delivery service on a user-pays basis.

Wellington District Law Society (WDLS)
High Court Building, PO Box 494, Wellington, New Zealand
Tel: +64 4 473 6202, fax: +64 4 471 2568, e-mail: library@wdls.org.nz

The library contains most New Zealand texts, all New Zealand law report series and legal journals. The library also has a large collection of unreported judgments, with Court of Appeal decisions from 1970, a New Zealand wide collection of High Court decisions for 1970-1974, 1977-1978, 1980-1985 and a collection of Wellington-based High Court decisions from 1986.

Law library staff offer a comprehensive research and document delivery service on a user-pays basis.

Data Services
PO Box 33-1125, Takapuna, North Shore City, New Zealand
Tel: +64 9 486 0703, fax: +64 9 489 6349, e-mail: cswan@dataservices.co.nz

Data Services offer a Law Search Service, on a user-pays transactional basis. If you require access to any of their databases, their legal research team will undertake the research for you and provide you with the database search results, including full-text decisions, if required.

Conclusion

The volume of New Zealand legal and commercial information available on the internet is increasing. As yet there is limited free access material, but the user-pays material that is available has been extensively value-added by the publishers and information providers. This in itself is not a bad thing. Why should a law firm or commercial entity gain financial benefit from electronic information that an individual or organisation has had to invest time and money in creating? On the other hand every member of the public has a right to free access to the statutes, regulations and case law that governs them, as ignorance of the law is no excuse.

Biographical

Jane Treadwell, B.A., DipLib, began her library career in 1978, and moved into law libraries in 1985 when she joined Russell McVeagh, Auckland. After 8 years at Russell McVeagh, in a wide range of library positions, she took up a position with McElroys, a small boutique insurance litigation and maritime law firm, in 1993, to establish their library.

During 1996 she also established the inaugural New Zealand Refugee Status Library, known as the Nicholson Library, as a joint library for the Refugee Status Branch of the New Zealand Immigration Service and the Refugee Status Appeals Authority.

In 1997 Jane established her own consultancy business, providing library review and information management strategy services to a wide range of law firm, corporate, governmental and private sector clients.

The author would like to acknowledge the assistance given to her by Brooker's, Butterworths New Zealand, CCH New Zealand, Data Services, The Knowledge Basket, Law Library Management, The LINX database committee, and Status Publishing in the preparation of this paper.