Two years to sue. The post may not last the week.
New Zealand gives you two years from publication to bring a defamation claim, and unlike Australia it has no statutory serious harm threshold and no mandatory pre-action notice. What it does have is the same practical problem: everything you have to prove is a description of a publication that someone can delete in one click.
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M. Traeger
Public post · 412 shares
“The people running that firm took money that was never theirs. Ask anyone who worked there. I would not let them near my family.”
Deleted 6 days later, after 412 shares. Two years to sue, and nothing left to sue about.
Captured & sealed
SHA-256 · Bitcoin timestamp
Illustrative example. Fictional post and fictional firm.
New Zealand defamation law is simpler than the Australian version, and that simplicity does not help you if the publication is gone. Under section 15 of the Limitation Act 2010 a defamation claim must be brought within two years of publication, although where you can show you only reasonably discovered the material later, the court can treat the clock as starting on that late knowledge date. There is no statutory serious harm threshold as there is in Australia, and no mandatory concerns notice before you file. New Zealand courts instead work with a more-than-minor-harm threshold, set in Sellman v Slater [2017] NZHC 2392 and approved by the Court of Appeal in Craig v Slater [2020] NZCA 305, and treated as an element of the tort rather than a defence: the plaintiff has to show the statement would make a reasonable reader think worse of them in a more than minor way. Proving what was published, to whom, and how far it travelled is therefore the whole exercise. ProofSnap captures the post, the profile, the comment thread and the visible engagement as a package containing the full page, the saved source, the URL, the UTC capture time, a SHA-256 hash of every file, an RSA-4096 signature and a Bitcoin blockchain timestamp. From $4.99 (about NZ$9) as a one-off.
By Radim Motycka, Founder and Lead Engineer, ProofSnap · · Independently verifiable via Trust Verifier
Why this goes wrong so often
The post comes down, and the case comes down with it
People delete defamatory posts, sometimes out of remorse and more often because someone told them to. Either way the deletion happens long before your lawyer sees the file.
Deleted before you get advice
The gap between reading something about yourself and speaking to a lawyer is usually days. That is more than enough time for the post, the account or the whole page to disappear, and platforms are not obliged to keep a copy for you.
Minor harm is argued from the spread
You have to show the statement lowered your reputation in a more than minor way, and that is argued from how far the publication travelled: shares, views, comments, who engaged, and the size of the audience. All of it is on the page, and only while the page is live.
Two years, running from publication
The limitation period is two years from the date of publication. A late knowledge date can move the start where you genuinely could not have known earlier, but that is an argument you have to win rather than a safety net you can rely on.
How the New Zealand position actually differs
If you have read Australian material on this, put it aside. The two systems diverged and the differences change what you have to prepare.
Two years, with a late knowledge date
A claim must be brought within two years of publication. Where the plaintiff shows they only reasonably discovered the material later, and ought not reasonably to have known earlier, the court can proceed on the basis that the period started on that later date.
No statutory serious harm threshold
Australia legislated a serious harm element in 2021. New Zealand did not. The courts here work with a more-than-minor-harm threshold instead, which is a lower bar, and it still has to be met with evidence about the effect of the publication.
No mandatory concerns notice
There is no pre-action notice you must serve before filing, unlike the Australian concerns notice. There is a separate obligation under section 41: where the defendant pleads qualified privilege and you want to defeat it under section 19(1) by alleging predominant ill will or improper advantage taken of the occasion, you serve particulars within 10 working days after the statement of defence is served on you, or within such further time as the court allows.
Evidence Act 2006, section 137
Where a machine, device or technical process generally does what you assert it does, it is presumed to have done so on the occasion in question, in the absence of evidence to the contrary. A capture that documents its own integrity is what makes that presumption hard to displace. Where the post is abusive rather than merely defamatory, a Netsafe complaint under the Harmful Digital Communications Act is usually faster and cheaper than proceedings.
Capture the reach, not just the words
The most common gap in a defamation file is proof of extent. Capture the post together with what is visible around it: the share count, the view count, the comment thread, the reactions, the size of the group or page it appeared on, and any reposts you can find. Capture each as its own record on the day you find it. How far a publication travelled is argued from the page, and the page is the thing that disappears.
Three steps, about forty seconds
No forensic training required. The proof is in the package, not in your testimony about how careful you were.
Capture the publication and its reach
The post, the profile behind it, the comment thread and any reshares. Each capture records the URL and the UTC time, so the sequence of what appeared when is preserved.
The package seals and timestamps itself
SHA-256 for every file, an RSA-4096 signature over the manifest, and an anchor to the Bitcoin blockchain so the date of your capture cannot be moved.
Hand it to your lawyer as one file
The PDF evidence report reads like a document and the ZIP verifies in a browser. Your lawyer gets a file to work from rather than a folder of loose images.
What lands in the evidence package
Between 11 and 15 files depending on your plan, delivered as one ZIP that anyone can check without installing anything.
Full-page screenshot
The whole page, not just the visible window, stitched and hashed.
Saved page source
The document as rendered at capture time, including the head, meta tags and structured data.
Extracted page text
Searchable plain text, so a quote can be found and cited without retyping.
Technical metadata
URL, page title, HTTP response headers, browser, operating system and the capture time in UTC.
Signed manifest
SHA-256 for every file, signed with an RSA-4096 key whose public key ships in the package.
Blockchain timestamp
The manifest hash anchored to Bitcoin via OpenTimestamps, so the capture time cannot be backdated.
Chain of custody and forensic log
A record of what happened during the capture, in the order it happened.
Evidence report as PDF
A readable summary you can attach to an application, a notice or a report.
Verification instructions
Written steps plus scripts, so the other side can re-check the hashes offline.
Where all of that comes from
Every file above is produced by one press in the side panel, while the publication is still up. The words complained of, the account behind them, the address and the time are recorded together, which is the material a statement of claim has to set out with some precision.
If the same imputation was published in several places, capture each one. Separate packages make it far easier to plead separate publications later.
Want to see what comes out before you install anything? Download a sample evidence package and open it yourself.
Anyone can verify it, including the other side. Drop the ZIP onto the public Trust Verifier and the hashes, the signature and the timestamp are checked in the browser. Nothing is uploaded and nothing depends on ProofSnap still existing.
Three ways to get the evidence
Prices are charged in USD. Approximate New Zealand figures are shown for orientation only, and your card issuer sets the actual rate.
One dispute
$4.99 once
about NZ$9
A SnapPack is a single up-front purchase for a set number of captures. No subscription, no auto-renewal, no trial. Best when you have one problem and you want it documented today.
Get a SnapPackOngoing matters
$8.99/month
about NZ$16
For anyone who captures regularly: practitioners, property managers, HR, investigators. The 7-day free trial requires a credit card. Cancel any time during the trial and you are not charged.
Start the 7-day trialWe do it for you
$44.99 per URL
about NZ$78
Send us the link and our team captures the package for you, with nothing to install. Useful when the capture should not come from a party to the dispute.
See the capture serviceProofSnap is not a law firm and does not give legal advice. Qualified timestamps are issued by Disig a.s., a Qualified Trust Service Provider on the EU Trusted List. New Zealand has no equivalent regime, so that timestamp is independent corroboration here rather than a legal presumption.
Official sources
Every figure and deadline on this page comes from the following primary sources. Check them yourself rather than taking our word for it.
- Defamation Act 1992 the Act itself, including the notice obligation about ill will.
- Evidence Act 2006, section 137 the presumption for evidence produced by a machine, device or technical process.
- Citizens Advice Bureau: limitation periods how long you have to bring different kinds of claim.
- Limitation Act 2010, section 15 the two-year primary period and the two-year late knowledge period for defamation claims.
Defamation is one of the few areas where New Zealand and Australian law look similar and behave differently. If you are reading Australian guidance about concerns notices and the serious harm threshold, none of it applies here.
Questions people actually ask
Two years to act. The post may not last the week.
Capture the publication and its reach while both are still visible, then take advice.