We specialise in providing low cost limited legal services—principally consultations and document reviews—to creatives, including writers and visual artists, and independent New Zealand publishers.  We aim to provide high quality advice on a personalised, cost-effective level.

To start, use our ‘Ask a question’ form it helps us to confirm that you need us, and in some cases it may provide all the assistance you need.  The form will give us an initial understanding of what might be involved and how we can assist. 

Sooner rather than later is usually best.  Getting us involved later can add to costs and reduce avenues available to solve a problem.  Additionally, because we specialise in how the law applies to creatives, we can help with other creative rights matters beyond one specific matter.

When you talk to an advisor, remember that background information is vital—and usually more is better, even if it doesn’t seem relevant when you first start to talk to us.

Copyright is nuanced. All copyright cases have to be dealt with on a case-by-case basis, and to get clear answers about your situation, it's best to get tailored legal advice. Access experienced legal advisors with Legal Service.

Keep records of your creative works and contracts in Catalogue to make it easy to gather the necessary background information when engaging a legal advisor. Explore the Catalogue here. 

As part of the form submission process we will identify the legal advisor best placed to assist you.  We’ll tell you who this will be at the beginning of our work with you, and if that advisor needs to change we’ll let you know in advance.

During the triage process we will make an estimate of the fee payable, and you will be asked to pay this before you start working with us.  If we end up needing more time than estimated we will inform you promptly, but this is rare—minimise the risk of this happening by engaging with us as soon as possible and sharing all information with us from the outset. 

We try to minimise our use of legal jargon, but we must be mindful of accidentally creating uncertainty as a result.  If anything we say is unclear just ask us to explain it!

In the first instance we encourage you to raise any concerns with your legal advisor. If you do not feel comfortable doing that, you can discuss the matter with Copyright Licensing New Zealand by emailing us at support@copyright.co.nz

Creative Legal Services legal consultants are all legally qualified enrolled barristers and solicitors of the High Court of New Zealand with years of experience working in the creative sector. However they do not have current New Zealand practicing certificates and therefore are not called lawyers.  This means that your communications with them are not protected by legal privilege, however they will be treated with the utmost confidentiality and in accordance with the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020.  Your personal information as well as your communications through MyCreativeRights is only accessible to Creative Legal Services legal consultants, as well as the MyCreativeRights administrative staff when necessary for administrative purposes, who are all legally obliged to maintain the confidentiality of this information.  Your information is only retained for as long as is reasonable in accordance with the provisions of the Privacy Act 2020, and information no longer required is destroyed securely.  Please see our Privacy Policy for more information including how to remove your information.    

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To the fullest extent permitted by law our total liability to you in connection with any matter (or series of related matters) on which you engage us will not exceed an amount equal to five times the value of fees paid to us (excluding our office service charge, disbursements and GST), up to a maximum of NZ $1,000,000 (including interest and costs).

We encourage customers to raise any issues that they may have at the earliest opportunity. We value our relationships with our customers very highly and will strive to accommodate valid customer concerns wherever possible.

These terms, having been handed, sent, or referred to our customer, will apply to all instructions received from our customer including matters currently underway and future instructions.

We value our customers' satisfaction and aim to provide the highest quality of service. However, we understand that there may be occasions when our customers are not fully satisfied with our services. We take all complaints seriously and are committed to resolving them promptly and fairly. This policy outlines the steps to follow when making a complaint and the process we follow to address and resolve any issues raised.

A complaint is defined as any expression of dissatisfaction with the service, staff, or any other aspect of our business operations, made by a customer.

Upon receiving a complaint, we will adhere to the following process:

We will acknowledge the receipt of the complaint within one business day via the same channel through which the complaint was lodged.

Our designated complaints handling team will initiate an investigation into the matter raised.

We will make every effort to resolve the complaint promptly and within a reasonable timeframe.

If the complaint requires more time for investigation and resolution, we will keep the complainant informed of the progress and expected timeframes for resolution.

We aim to provide regular updates on the status of the complaint.

Once the investigation is complete, we will communicate the outcome to the complainant.

If the complainant is not satisfied with the resolution provided, they may escalate the complaint to Sam Irvine, Chief Executive of Copyright Licensing New Zealand, who will review the matter independently and provide a final response.

We will maintain records of all complaints received, including the details of the complaint, actions taken for resolution, and any outcomes achieved. This information will be regularly analysed to identify trends and areas for improvement in our services.

We will treat all complaints and related information with the utmost confidentiality, sharing them only with those directly involved in the investigation and resolution process.

We value feedback from our customers and use complaints as an opportunity to improve our services and prevent similar issues from occurring in the future.

Our Complaints Policy will be made available to customers through our website.

Our privacy policy is available here