The County Court (Amendment) Rules (Northern Ireland) 2007

Made: 8th December 2007

Coming into operation: 7th January 2008

The County Court Rules Committee makes the following Rules in exercise of the powers conferred by Article 47 of the County Courts (Northern Ireland) Order 1980[^f00001].

Citation

1

These Rules may be cited as the County Court (Amendment) Rules (Northern Ireland) 2007.

Amendment to the County Court Rules (Northern Ireland) 1981

2

In Order 19 (Assessors), in rule 5 (Remuneration) for “£31.04” substitute “£32.31”.

3

In Order 24 (Evidence)—

• (a) rule 2 (Evidence to be taken orally) shall become paragraph (1) of that rule;

• (b) after that paragraph insert—

(2) The court may allow a witness to give evidence through a video link or by any other method of direct communication.

; and

• (c) in rule 9 (Witness summons), in paragraph (7)(a)—

• (i) for “£12.15” substitute “£12.65”; and

• (ii) for “£17.12” substitute “£17.82”.

4

In Order 33 (Decrees)—

• (a) in rule 3 (Recovery of value added tax), in paragraph (2) omit “to a decree in equity proceedings or”; and

• (b) in rule 10 (Stay of execution and removal thereof), in paragraph (6) for “£7.05” substitute “£7.34”.

5

In Order 55 (Costs)—

• (a) in rule 11(1)(c)—

• (i) at the end of sub-paragraph (iv) omit “or”; and

• (ii) after sub-paragraph (v) add the following new sub-paragraphs—

(vi) regulations 24 or 25 of the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006; or (vii) regulations 5 to 17 of the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006.

; and

• (b) in rule 17 (Services fee for postal service) for “£2.62” substitute “£2.73”.

6

For Appendix 2 substitute the new Appendix 2 set out in the Schedule to these Rules.

SCHEDULE

Signed

The undersigned members of the County Court Rules Committee certify these Rules and submit them to the Lord Chancellor.

Signed

T. A. Burgess — Adrian Colton — Barry Valentine — Dorcas Crawford — Brian J. Stewart — Nigel Elliott

Dated 30th November 2007

In exercise of the powers conferred by Article 47(4) of the County Courts (Northern Ireland) Order 1980 and after consultation with the Lord Chief Justice, I allow these Rules which shall come into operation on 7th January 2008.

Signed by the authority of the Lord Chancellor

David Hanson — Minister of State — Ministry of Justice — Dated 8th December 2007

Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Rules)

EXPLANATORY NOTE

These Rules amend the County Court Rules (Northern Ireland) 1981 [S.R. 1981 No. 225] (“the principal Rules”) to:

• make provision for the court to allow a witness to give evidence by video link or by any other means of direct communication;

• make provision for enhancement of costs in an action brought under the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006 or the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006;

• uplift by 4.08% (rounded where appropriate) certain costs in the body of the principal Rules and the scale costs for solicitor and counsel prescribed in Appendix 2 of the principal Rules; and

• amend Order 33, rule 3 (Recovery of value added tax) to apply that rule to a decree in equity proceedings.

Footnotes

[^f00001]: S.I. 1980/397 (N.I.3) to which the most recent relevant amendments were made by the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 (c.4).

[^f00002]: S.R. 1981 No. 225 to which the most recent relevant amendments were made by S.R. 2006 No. 521.

[^f00003]: S.I. 1978/1050 (N.I.20).

[^f00004]: S.I. 1978/1050 (N.I.20).

[^f00005]: S.I. 1977/1247 (N.I.14).

[^f00006]: S.I. 1988/793 (N.I.4).

[^f00007]: 1996 c.22.

[^f00008]: 2000 c.11.