Legal research, organised and searchable
VadeLab is a free legal research platform for New Zealand case law and legislation. It brings together judgments from New Zealand's national courts and tribunals and the text of the statutes and regulations they apply — organised so you can find a relevant decision in seconds, not hours.
What VadeLab is
A collection of public judgments from New Zealand courts and tribunals— including the Tenancy Tribunal, the Immigration and Protection Tribunal, and the Courts of New Zealand — spanning everyday areas of law, cross-referenced with the legislation each decision applies. The collection grows continuously, with new judgments added every week. Each case comes with a plain-English summary, the legal holding and the provisions it cites — organised so you can find what you need quickly.
Search, not guesswork
Use plain-English search to find judgments by topic rather than exact legal wording, browse by court or tribunal or area of law, and follow the links between a judgment and the statute sections it relies on. Every statute page also shows the judgments that have cited it, in chronological order.
Real decisions — nothing invented
Generic AI can produce convincing but fabricated case references. VadeLab only cites real, verifiable judgments from courts and tribunals, with the court or tribunal, judge and date identified, and a link back to the official source.
These public pages
We publish part of our collection openly — judgments and legislation — with plain-English summaries generated by AI, to make legal information easier to access. The underlying content is public and official; AI-generated summaries are clearly labelled as such on every page.
Privacy and responsibility
Before publishing, we anonymise the names of parties and other personal details — including respecting formal name suppression orders — in line with New Zealand's Privacy Act 2020. Summaries are informational and are not a substitute for advice from a qualified lawyer. See our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Who's behind it
VadeLab is built by a small team focused on making legal research easier to access. Get in touch at contact@vadelab.com.