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

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 (1)

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.

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