Terms of Use
Last updated: July 2026. By using VadeLab, you agree to the terms below.
1. What VadeLab is
VadeLab is a free legal research tool giving access to public judgments from New Zealand courts and tribunals across everyday areas of law, together with the legislation those judgments apply. Each judgment is presented with a plain-English summary, its legal holding and the statute provisions it cites.
2. VadeLab does not replace a lawyer
VadeLab is a research aid. It does not provide legal services, does not issue formal opinions and does not replace the work, professional judgment or responsibility of a lawyer. Any AI-generated content — summaries, plain-English explanations — is informational and should be checked against the official judgment or statutory text before you rely on it. Responsibility for any use of this content in legal proceedings rests entirely with the individual using it.
3. No promise of outcome
VadeLab does not guarantee, promise or predict the outcome of any case, appeal or claim. Any statistics or patterns shown describe historical data from published decisions already in our collection — a snapshot of the past, not a forecast. The outcome of a case depends on many factors outside the scope of this tool.
4. AI-generated content
Summaries and plain-English explanations are generated from real judgments in our curated collection. Despite careful checks, AI models can make mistakes. Always check the full judgment or statutory text against the official source (the relevant court, tribunal or legislation.govt.nz) before using it in any formal context.
5. Our collection
Our collection brings together public judgments and legislation from official New Zealand sources. It is a curated collection — it does not contain every judgment ever handed down. The absence of a decision from our collection does not mean it does not exist; it may simply not have been added yet, or it may be subject to name suppression. Always check the official source for the court or tribunal in question.
6. Acceptable use
You agree to use VadeLab lawfully and in good faith — without attempting to circumvent access controls, without scraping or bulk-extracting content abusively, and without using the service for unlawful purposes.
7. Privacy and data
How we handle your data is described in our Privacy Policy, which forms part of these Terms.
8. Limitation of liability
VadeLab is provided “as is”. We are not responsible for any procedural, strategic or other decisions made on the basis of content from this tool. The decision, and the responsibility for it, always rests with the lawyer or individual concerned.
9. Changes to these terms
These terms may be updated from time to time. Material changes will be announced on this page. Continued use of VadeLab after an update means you accept the new version.
10. Contact
Questions about these terms: contact@vadelab.com