The new guidelines laid out the sittings that can be held on court holidays
Chief District Court Judge Heemi Taumaunu has released the new holiday schedule that will be followed by the District Court.
The new guidelines, which were issued in a memo dated 8 November, supersede those released last month. The updated directions are based on r 2.2 of the District Court Rules 2014.
The guidelines reinforce that court business can only be conducted on a Sunday or on Christmas Day if a judge deems it “extremely urgent”. If that condition is met, the following court business can take place on court holidays over the 2024/2025 Christmas and New Year period:
Urgent Family Court applications will still be managed through the eDuty platform. On 24 December, such applications must be filed by 12:00 p.m. On other days, the cutoff time is 2:00 p.m., which facilitates the application’s filing on the platform by 3:00 p.m. Applications made after this time will be processed on the following court working day.
The principal Family Court judge and principal Youth Court judge provided input on the new guidelines.
