When Power Goes Wrong · Liability & Remedy Ledger · Part 10

Who is immune from civil liability?

New Zealand law contains targeted immunities rather than one blanket government immunity. Judges, good-faith public servants and Crown-entity office holders receive different protections, and some immunities expressly preserve judicial review or institutional Crown liability.

Immunity must be read office by office and statute by statute.

District Court Judges have statutory judicial immunity under the District Court Act 2016. Courts of New Zealand also describes the broader constitutional principle that judges are protected from private suits for acts done judicially.

Public Service Act s 104 gives good-faith civil immunity to public-service chief executives and employees. Crown Entities Act s 121 gives members, office holders and employees immunity for defined “excluded acts or omissions”, while expressly preserving judicial review.

Immunity protects a person from a particular form of liability; it does not necessarily legalise the act.A decision can remain reviewable, the entity can remain liable, or the Crown can remain liable even where the individual decision-maker cannot personally be ordered to pay damages.

JudgesJudicial immunity protects judicial acts; appeal/review mechanisms address legal error.

Public servantsGood-faith immunity under Public Service Act s 104; Crown tort liability may survive via Crown Proceedings Act s 6(4A).

Crown entitiesMembers/officers/employees have statutory protections for excluded acts; judicial review expressly preserved.

Key distinctionImmunity from damages ≠ immunity from legality review.

Always ask: immunity for whom, against what claim, for which conduct, and does another defendant or remedy remain available?

Primary statutesDistrict Court Act 2016, s 23; Public Service Act 2020, s 104; Crown Entities Act 2004, ss 120–126.

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