AI citations in New Zealand courts
Every public New Zealand decision in the corpus that deals with AI-generated or fictitious citations, and what the Courts of New Zealand guidelines on generative AI tell lawyers and self-represented litigants. Guidelines read on ; counts computed from the corpus refreshed 2026-10-23.
In the corpus
7 of 2,202 public records come from New Zealand courts and tribunals; 7 involve a self-represented party.A record counts for a country when its jurisdiction cell lists that country, the same rule the country profile uses (lib/jurisdictions.mjs). Party, court, outcome and year are read from the structured fields of each public record; counts are computed at build time from the corpus file the case pages use. Latest tracked decision in the whole corpus: 2026-10-15.
All 7 New Zealand records
| Decision | Court or tribunal | Outcome recorded |
|---|---|---|
| Chen v. Goodmore Investments & Tawa May 1, 2026 | Supreme Court | No sanction recorded |
| Jones v. Family Court at Whangarei Feb 11, 2026 | Supreme Court | Warning |
| Coulson v. ASB Bank Nov 11, 2025 | High Court | No sanction recorded |
| QTR v BXD ([2025] NZERA 716) Nov 7, 2025 | Employment Relations Authority | No sanction recorded |
| Cunningham v healthAlliance NZ Limited Aug 29, 2025 | Employment Court | Warning |
| LMN v. STC (No. 2) Mar 17, 2025 | Employment Court of New Zealand | Warning |
| Wikeley v Kea Investments Ltd Nov 21, 2024 | Court of Appeal of New Zealand | No sanction recorded |
1 of these records name the AI tool; the rest say AI use was implied or not identified. Compare with fictitious citations in Canadian courts and pro se litigants across the corpus.
What the Courts of New Zealand guidelines say
The judiciary published three versions on 7 December 2023: for judges and court staff, for lawyers and for non-lawyers. Quoted from the lawyer and non-lawyer PDFs read on October 23, 2026.
On fake cases. Guidelines for non-lawyers:
GenAI chatbots may: • make up fake cases, citations and quotes, or refer to legislation, articles or legal texts that do not exist; • provide incorrect or misleading information about the law or how it might apply in your case; • get facts wrong; and • confirm that information is true if asked, even when it is not.
On checking.
You are responsible for ensuring that all information you provide to the court/tribunal is accurate.
You must check the accuracy of any information you get from a GenAI chatbot before using that information in court/tribunal proceedings.
Guidelines for lawyers:
You must check the accuracy of any information you have been provided with by a GenAI chatbot (including legal citations) before using that information in court/tribunal proceedings.
As officers of the court, lawyers must not mislead the court.
On disclosure.
You do not need to disclose use of a GenAI chatbot as a matter of course – unless asked by the court or tribunal.
You do not need to disclose use of a GenAI chatbot by default – unless asked by the court or tribunal.
Before you rely on this
With 7 records the set is small; it shows what published decisions say, not how often AI is misused in New Zealand. Counts reflect the structured fields of each public record. Read the decision before citing it. Nothing here is legal advice.
Primary sources (read October 23, 2026)
Questions this page answers
- How many New Zealand court decisions involve AI-generated citations?
- 7 of the 2,202 public records in the AI Vortex corpus come from New Zealand courts and tribunals, counted by script on the corpus refreshed 2026-10-23. The earliest is dated Nov 21, 2024 and the most recent May 1, 2026. The corpus counts published decisions that discuss suspected AI-generated content; it is not a complete census.
- Who filed the AI citations in the New Zealand records?
- 7 of the 7 New Zealand records involve a self-represented party and 0 involve a lawyer.
- What did New Zealand courts do about the AI citations?
- 3 records list a warning and 4 record no sanction. None of the New Zealand records lists a monetary sanction.
- Do you have to tell a New Zealand court that you used AI?
- Not by default. The guidelines for lawyers say: "You do not need to disclose use of a GenAI chatbot as a matter of course – unless asked by the court or tribunal." The version for non-lawyers says the same, and both add that a court or tribunal may ask or require disclosure.
- What do the New Zealand guidelines say about fake cases from AI chatbots?
- The guidelines for non-lawyers warn: "GenAI chatbots may: • make up fake cases, citations and quotes, or refer to legislation, articles or legal texts that do not exist; • provide incorrect or misleading information about the law or how it might apply in your case; • get facts wrong; and • confirm that information is true if asked, even when it is not." They also say: "You must check the accuracy of any information you get from a GenAI chatbot before using that information in court/tribunal proceedings."