The Magistrates' Courts Rules 1981

Application for alteration of maintenance agreement under s. 35 of Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 or under paragraph 69 of Schedule 5 to the Civil Partnership Act 2004 ...

Proceedings against person outside the United Kingdom on application for variation, etc. of certain maintenance ... orders

Application for summons to witness or warrant for his arrest

Notice of order under s.104 of Road Traffic Act 1972

Signature of forms prescribed by rules made under the Act of 1980

Cessation of Transfer Direction

Notice of registration to defaulter under section 36(8) of the Transport Act 1982

Statutory declaration under section 37 of the Transport Act 1982

Composition of committee of magistrates for inner London area

Applications for variation or discharge of orders under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998

Form of warrants issued by magistrates’ courts

Service of summons

Service of orders

115

• (1) Subject to paragraph (6), in proceedings commenced by complaint, unless any enactment otherwise provides for service of an order, the designated officer for the court shall serve a copy of that order on the defendant as soon as reasonably practicable after an order or interim order has been made.

• (2) The designated officer may serve the copy by—

• (a) handing it to the defendant in person or, where the defendant is a corporation, to a person holding a senior position in that corporation;

• (b) posting it to the defendant at an address where it is reasonably believed that the defendant will receive it or, where the defendant is a corporation, the address for service in accordance with paragraph (3);

• (c) where the defendant has given an electronic address and has not refused to accept service at that address, sending it by electronic means to the address which the defendant has given;

• (d) where the defendant is legally represented, serving it on the defendant’s legal representative in the same manner as it could be served on the defendant under sub-paragraphs (a), (b) and (c);

• (e) where the defendant is in custody, sending it to his or her custodian, addressed to the defendant; or

• (f) any other method specified by the court.

• (3) Where the defendant is a corporation, the address for service under this rule is the defendant’s principal office, and if there is no readily identifiable principal office, then any place where it carries on its activities or business.

• (4) An order served in accordance with paragraph (2) shall be deemed to have been received by the defendant—

• (a) if handed to the defendant or the defendant’s legal representative in accordance with paragraph (1)(a), when so handed;

• (b) if sent by electronic means in accordance with paragraph (1)(c) or (d), one day after being sent; or

• (c) in any other case, three business days after being posted, sent or given,

unless something different is shown.

• (5) Unless something different is shown, a document produced by a computer system for dispatch by post is to be taken as having been sent by post, or the equivalent of post, to the addressee on the third business day after the day on which it was produced.

• (6) This rule does not apply to—

• (a) a domestic abuse protection order (for which rule 19 requires service on the defendant personally); or

• (b) a liability order.

Applications under regulation 7(2)(b) of the Debt Respite Scheme (Breathing Space Moratorium and Mental Health Crisis Moratorium) (England and Wales) Regulations 2020

60A

• (1) In this Rule the “2020 Regulations” means the Debt Respite Scheme (Breathing Space Moratorium and Mental Health Crisis Moratorium) (England and Wales) Regulations 2020.

• (2) Where the permission of a magistrates’ court is sought for the purposes of regulation 7(2)(b) (effect of moratorium) of the 2020 Regulations, an application must be made by complaint in writing and Part II of the Magistrates’ Courts Act 1980 applies accordingly, with the exception of paragraphs (2) to (8) of section 55 (non-appearance of defendant).

• (3) The complainant must serve on the debt advice provider named in the notification provided for the purposes of regulation 4(3) (debt advice provider fees and referrals) of the 2020 Regulations a copy of the summons that is issued to the debtor following a complaint under paragraph (1).

Notice of adjudication on complaint for enforcement of magistrates' court maintenance order, etc.

Particulars relating to payment of lump sum under magistrates' court maintenance order, etc. to be entered in register

Notice of date of reception in custody and discharge

Direction that money found on defaulter shall not be applied in satisfaction of debt

Particulars of fine enforcement to be entered in register

Live links

3B

• (1) The court may exercise its power to allow or require anyone, including any member or members of the court, to take part in proceedings by live link—

• (a) on application or on the court’s own initiative; and

• (b) as long as the court is satisfied that it is in the interests of justice to exercise that power in that way.

• (2) Unless the court otherwise directs—

• (a) a person who takes part in proceedings by live link must be treated as present; and

• (b) where a member of the court takes part in proceedings by live link those proceedings must be treated as taking place—

• (i) at any place at which the court lawfully can sit in England and Wales, and

• (ii) at any such place as the designated officer advertises under rule 66E(2)(a).

Documents served on the designated officer

The open justice principle

Request for information about a case

Request for information by a party or person directly affected by a case

66C

• (1) This rule applies where a party, or a person directly affected by a direction or order made or a warrant issued by the court, wants information about their case.

• (2) Such a party or person must—

• (a) ask the designated officer;

• (b) specify the information requested; and

• (c) pay any fee prescribed.

• (3) The request—

• (a) may be made orally or in writing, and need not explain why the information is requested, if this rule requires the designated officer to supply that information; but

• (b) must be in writing, unless the court otherwise permits, and must explain why the information is requested, if this rule does not so require.

• (4) Subject to paragraph (5), the designated officer must supply to the party or person making the request—

• (a) information about the terms of any direction or order made, or warrant issued, which was—

• (i) served on, or addressed or directed to, that party or person, or

• (ii) made on an application by that party or person; and

• (b) information received from that party or person (which might be, for example, to establish what information the court holds, or in case of a loss of that information by the party or person making the request).

• (5) The designated officer must not supply the information requested if that information—

• (a) concerns the grounds on which a direction or order was made, or a warrant issued, in the absence of the party or person making the request; or

• (b) is not readily available to the designated officer (for example, because of the location or conditions of its storage).

• (6) Where the designated officer must supply the information requested the supply may be, at the choice of the party or person making the request—

• (a) by word of mouth;

• (b) in writing, including by written certificate or extract from a court record; or

• (c) by a copy of a document served by, or on, that party or person (but not of a document not so served).

• (7) Where this rule does not require the designated officer to supply the information requested—

• (a) the designated officer must refer the request to the court; and

• (b) rule 66D applies.

Request for information determined by the court

66D

• (1) This rule applies where the designated officer refers to the court a request for information under rule 66B (request for information about a case) or rule 66C (request for information by a party or person directly affected by a case).

• (2) The designated officer must—

• (a) serve the request on—

• (i) the applicant for any direction, order or warrant that the request concerns which was made or issued in the absence of the party or person making the request, and

• (ii) anyone else, and to such extent, as the court directs; and

• (b) notify the party or person making the request of—

• (i) the date of its service under this rule, and

• (ii) the identity of each person served with it, if the court so directs.

• (3) If a party or person served with the request objects to the supply of information requested the objector must—

• (a) give notice of the objection not more than 20 business days after service of the request, or within any longer period allowed by the court;

• (b) serve that notice on the designated officer and on the party or person making the request; and

• (c) if the objector wants a hearing, explain why one is needed.

• (4) A notice of objection must explain—

• (a) whether the objection is to the supply of the whole of the information requested, or only to the supply of a specified part or specified parts;

• (b) whether the objection applies without limit of time, or only for a specified period (for example, until a date or event specified by the objector); and

• (c) the grounds of the objection.

• (5) Where a notice of objection includes material that the objector thinks ought not be revealed to the party or person making the request, the objector must—

• (a) omit that material from the notice served on that party or person;

• (b) mark the material to show that it is only for the court; and

• (c) with that material include an explanation of why it has been withheld.

• (6) The court must not determine the request, and information requested must not be supplied, until—

• (a) each party or person served with the request has had at least 20 business days, or any longer period allowed by the court, in which to object or make other representations; and

• (b) the court is satisfied that in all the circumstances every such party or person has had a reasonable opportunity to do so.

• (7) The court may determine the request—

• (a) without a hearing; or

• (b) at a hearing, which—

• (i) may be in public or private, but

• (ii) must be in private, unless the court otherwise directs, where the request concerns a direction, order or warrant made or issued in the absence of the party or person making the request.

• (8) Where a notice of objection includes material that the objector thinks ought not be revealed to the party or person making the request—

• (a) any hearing of the request may take place, wholly or in part, in the absence of the party or person making it; and

• (b) at any such hearing the general rule is that the court must consider, in the following sequence—

• (i) representations first by the party or person making the request and then by the objector, in the presence of both, and then

• (ii) further representations by the objector, in the absence of the party or person making the request

but the court may direct other arrangements for the hearing.

• (9) In deciding whether to order the supply of the information requested the court must have regard to—

• (a) the open justice principle;

• (b) any reporting restriction;

• (c) rights and obligations under other legislation;

• (d) the importance of any public interest in the withholding of that information, or in its supply only in part or subject to conditions (which public interest might be, for example, in preventing injustice, protecting others’ rights, protecting the confidentiality of a criminal investigation or protecting national security); and

• (e) the extent to which that information is otherwise available to the party or person making the request.

• (10) Where the court orders the supply of the information requested the supply may be, at the court’s direction—

• (a) by word of mouth;

• (b) in writing, including by written certificate or extract from a court record; or

• (c) by a copy of a document.

Publication of information about court hearings

66E

• (1) Where a case is due to be heard in public, the designated officer must—

• (a) publish the information listed in paragraph (2)—

• (i) if that information is available to the designated officer, and

• (ii) unless the publication of that information is prohibited by a reporting restriction; and

• (b) publish that information for no longer than 5 business days—

• (i) by notice displayed somewhere prominent in the vicinity of a court room in which the hearing is due to take place, and

• (ii) by such arrangements as the Lord Chancellor directs, including arrangements for publication by electronic means, but only to the extent needed to comply with the open justice principle.

• (2) The information that paragraph (1) requires the designated officer to publish is—

• (a) the date, time and place of the hearing;

• (b) the identity of the parties; and

• (c) such other information as it may be practicable to publish concerning—

• (i) the type of hearing,

• (ii) the identity of the court,

• (iii) in general terms, the subject of the proceedings, and

• (iv) whether any reporting or access restriction applies.

Special measures for witnesses

3C

• (1) The court may exercise its power to facilitate the giving of evidence by a witness—

• (a) on application or on the court’s own initiative; and

• (b) as long as the court is satisfied that it is in the interests of justice to exercise that power in that way.

• (2) An applicant for the exercise of that power must explain which one or more of the following arrangements the applicant suggests—

• (a) by means of a screen or other arrangement preventing the witness from seeing, or being seen by, another person except—

• (i) any member of the court,

• (ii) any legal representative acting in the proceedings, and

• (iii) any interpreter or other person appointed to assist the witness;

• (b) by means of a device allowing questions and answers to be communicated to or by the witness despite any disability, disorder or other impairment;

• (c) allowing the witness to be accompanied, with directions about seating arrangements for the companion; and

• (d) any other arrangement that the applicant thinks would be desirable to facilitate the giving of evidence by the witness and which the court has power to direct including any special measure that the court can direct by reason of section 49 of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021.

Duties of justices’ legal advisers

Measures to help a witness to give evidence

Forms and electronic arrangements for use in case management and for other purposes

3D

• (1) This rule applies where an enactment, a rule or the court requires a person to—

• (a) make an application or a complaint, or give a notice;

• (b) supply information for the purposes of case management by the court; or

• (c) supply information needed for other purposes by the court.

• (2) Unless the court otherwise directs, such a person must—

• (a) use such electronic arrangements as the designated officer may make for that purpose, in accordance with those arrangements; or

• (b) if no such arrangements have been made use the appropriate form issued by the Lord Chief Justice, in accordance with any relevant rule and any instructions in the form itself.

Application for order after giving domestic abuse protection notice

Notice of proposed terms of order

Service of order

Representations after application without notice

Application to vary or discharge order

Notice to responsible person of requirement for supervision or monitoring

Exclusion of requirement for notice of hearsay evidence

Documents to be sent on remand for medical inquiry

Transfer of remand hearings

Notice of further remand in certain cases

Appeal or application to be by complaint

Register in civil proceedings

Proof of service

Duty of justices’ legal adviser

81A

• (1) This rule applies in relation to a magistrates’ court, including a youth court, which—

• (a) comprises a lay justice or lay justices; and

• (b) agrees to state a case.

• (2) A justices’ legal adviser must assist the court by—

• (a) preparing and amending the draft case; and

• (b) completing the case stated.

Notice of bail requirement

Sureties for bail

Forfeiture of sureties