Law Manual Online is a free pool of plain-language legal information and is the online edition of the Community Law Manual.

The Community Law Manual has a history stretching back to the 1980s. It aims to present the law in a way that is understandable to ordinary people, empowering them to stand up for their rights, to make decisions about how to deal with legal problems, and to know who to contact if they need assistance.

We try hard to keep the information on this website up-to-date with any recent changes. However, we encourage you to get specific legal advice before relying on this information.  

Other online resources from Community Law

Disaster Relief Guide

This resource provides information for people impacted by a natural disaster or severe weather event. It covers care of children, insurance, tenancy, employment and more.  

Lag Law: Your rights inside prison and on release

Lag Law provides information for those in the prison system and their families, covering a wide range of topics.

The Community Toolkit

The Community Toolkit provides legal information for community groups. It includes coverage of the Incorporated Societies Act 2022 and how to register or re-register under this Act.   

We have also recently compiled two lists of useful legal resources provided by other organisations:

• Other sources of New Zealand legal information

• International and overseas law resources

The publications team at Community Law Wellington and Hutt Valley created and take care of the Law Manual Online and all of the listed guides. We want the Manual to be useful to everyone, especially those most negatively affected by capitalism, colonisation, racism, sexism, ableism and all the other systems of oppression causing harm to our communities.

We are a not-for-profit charity and we are not part of the government. Our content is created for the community, by the community. If you have any feedback or notice any important content areas that we’ve missed, please let us know.

Email us at publications@wclc.org.nz or write to us at PO Box 24005, Wellington 6142.