Cases
Neutral citations, reported cases and unreported judgments under rules 3.1 to 3.4.
Chapter 3 is the longest chapter in the Style Guide and the one you will use most. Almost all of it comes down to one question, asked in order.
Which form do I use
r 3.1 sets out a decision tree. Work down it.
- Does the case have a neutral citation, and is it reported? Give the neutral citation, then the single best report.
- Neutral citation but not reported? The neutral citation alone.
- No neutral citation but reported? The best report alone.
- Neither? The file number and the date.
“Best” means the official series first. In New Zealand that is the NZLR, and r 3.2.10 prefers it even over the Appeal Cases for a Privy Council appeal from New Zealand.
Neutral citations
A neutral citation is assigned by the court itself and does not belong to any publisher. It is the year in square brackets, the court identifier, and the judgment number (r 3.3.2).
Because the identifier already names the court, you never add a court in brackets as well.
Case name [year] Court number at pinpoint.
Three bodies carry a registry
The Employment Relations Authority, the Tenancy Tribunal and the Weathertight Homes Tribunal put the registry inside the citation. No other court does (r 3.3.3).
Courts adopted them at different times
Neutral citations are not available for older judgments. The Supreme Court started in 2005, the Court of Appeal in 2007, the High Court not until 2012. Pincite shows the adoption year beside each identifier.
Reported cases
Where a case has a neutral citation and is also reported, give both, separated by a comma. The pinpoint goes at the end and refers to the report.
Where there is no neutral citation, the report stands alone and the court goes in round brackets after the page (r 3.2.7(a)).
Case name [year] volume Series page (Court) at pinpoint.
One report, not several
r 3.2.10 allows the neutral citation and the single best report. There is no place for a second series, so do not add one.
The early NZLR volumes are different
In volumes 1 to 5 the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court were paginated separately, so the court goes inside the citation and there is no trailing identifier: “(1887) 5 NZLR CA 111”.
Unreported judgments
With no neutral citation and no report, identify the case by its court, registry, file number and the date of judgment (r 3.4).
Modern file numbers are hyphenated with leading zeroes dropped. Older ones are reproduced exactly as they appear on the judgment.
Case name Court Registry file number, date at pinpoint.
Two abbreviations that mean two things
NZCA is both the modern Court of Appeal identifier and the 1867 to 1877 report series. Round brackets and a volume number mark the series; square brackets mark the neutral citation.
SC is both the Supreme Court established in 2004 and the pre-1980 Supreme Court, which is now the High Court. Only the year tells them apart.
Cases you found in a database
r 7.1.9 is a sourcing rule, not a citation form. Cite the case by the ordinary chapter 3 rules and do not mention the database you found it in. A proprietary reference such as a Westlaw number is used only where nothing else is available.
Related Index entries
Reported caseCase with a neutral citationTribunal decision carrying a registryUnreported judgmentMinute or ruling given during a trialCase found in an online databaseLast reviewed 6 August 2026