Requesting information for legal proceedings

You may be required by law to appear in a court, or produce relevant documents or items to the court.

You may also need to ask a government body to produce relevant information to a court.

Below are examples of ways that information may be requested or accessed:

Subpoena

A subpoena is a document issued by the District and Supreme Court, and also the Magistrates Court in civil proceedings, that says someone must appear in court or give certain documents to the court at the request of another person.

If you are served with a subpoena, you may be able to object to the document or item being produced to the court if:

  • the information is not relevant to the court proceedings
  • the document is classified as legal professional privilege
  • it would be against the state or public interest.

If you don’t want a document or item produced in court, the judge will decide if it is allowed.

Summons

A summons is a Magistrates Court document used in criminal proceedings that instructs a person to give evidence or produce a document.

If you’re involved in proceedings in a Magistrates Court, you can have a summons issued by a justice of the peace to make a government body produce relevant documents.

If you’re served with a summons, you may be able to object to the document or item being produced to the court if:

  • the information is not relevant to court proceedings
  • the document is classified as legal professional privileged
  • it would be against the state or public interest.

The Evidence Act 1977

If you’re involved in civil proceedings, under s. 134A of the Evidence Act 1977, you can apply to a government body for them to produce documents that are in their possession and relevant to an issue in the proceedings for you to inspect.

Notice of non-party disclosure

If you are involved in civil proceedings, you may issue a ‘Notice of non-party disclosure’ to someone who is not involved in the proceedings. This includes government agencies.

They must then produce specific documents that are in their control. These must also be documents they would have to produce at trial.

The other party may refuse to disclose the documents if:

  • the information is not relevant to court proceedings
  • the document is classified as privileged
  • doing so is expensive and inconvenient.

If they object, the judge will decide if they should produce the documents or items.