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Appointment to the District Court or Environment Court Bench

If you wish to register your interest in appointment as a District or Environment Court Judge you can fill in this form:

Expression of interest form (PDF) [PDF, 197 KB]

Expression of interest form (Word) [DOCX, 81 KB]

or you can read more about it in this booklet:

Judicial appointments information booklet [DOCX, 42 KB]

Appointment to the High Court Bench

If you wish to register your interest in appointment as a High Court Judge or Associate Judge you can fill in these forms:

Expression of interest form [PDF, 465 KB]

Declaration for appointment to the High Court [DOCX, 26 KB]

or you can read more about the protocol here:

Appointments protocol [PDF, 282 KB]

Appointment to the Disputes Tribunal

The Disputes Tribunal is currently seeking expressions of interest for the role of Referee in the following regions:

 

WELLINGTON

INVERCARGILL

ROTORUA

PALMERSTON NORTH

HAMILTON

 

The Disputes Tribunal is a division of the District Court that hears civil claims up to a value of $60,000.00.  The jurisdiction of the Tribunal includes contract, commercial, consumer and property damage claims.  Referees are appointed as judicial officers by warrant from the Governor- General on the advice of the Associate Minister of Justice. Most Referees begin by sitting between 2-4 days a week.  The role is able to be part time or full time.

Referees conduct hearings either remotely or in a hearing room at the District Court. During the hearing, the Referee may facilitate a resolution, or if this is not possible, provide a written decision on the matter. This decision has the status of a District Court order. As a judicial officer working in a Tribunal setting, you would need to have strong legal and analytical abilities, hold relevant qualifications in law, mediation or arbitration, and enjoy working with people from all walks of life to help them resolve their differences. Full training is provided.  Referees are paid $980.00 per sitting day.

Successful candidates will show abilities in listening, assessing information, making decisions, relating to a wide variety of people, responding sensitively to cultural differences, expressing themselves clearly, and be able to engage in alternative ways of resolving disputes. A Referee also needs to show common sense and practical judgement and must be able to act with fairmindedness and impartiality. The criteria for assessment are set out in R38 of the Disputes Tribunal Rules 1989.

To begin the application process, please send an expression of interest to disputestribunal@justice.govt.nz.  An application pack will then be sent to you.  All completed applications need to be returned to the same email address by 5:00pm on Tuesday, 24 November 2026.

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