The Reciprocal Enforcement of Maintenance Orders (United States of America) Order 2007

Interpretation of Part 1

21.—(1) In this Part of this Act—

“affiliation order” means an order (however described) adjudging, finding or declaring a person to be the father of a child, whether or not it also provides for the maintenance of the child;

“the appropriate court”, in relation to a person residing or having assets in England and Wales or in Northern Ireland means a magistrates’ court, and in relation to a person residing or having assets in Scotland means a sheriff court, within the jurisdiction of which that person is residing or has assets;

“certificate of arrears”, in relation to a maintenance order, means a certificate certifying that the sum specified in the certificate is to the best of the information or belief of the officer or, in Scotland, the applicant or his solicitor giving the certificate the amount of the arrears due under the order at the date of the certificate or, as the case may be, that to the best of his information or belief there are no arrears due thereunder at that date;

“certified copy”, in relation to an order of a court, means a copy of the order certified by the proper officer of the court to be a true copy;

“court” includes any tribunal or person having power to make, confirm, enforce, vary or revoke a maintenance order;

“maintenance order” means an order (however described) of any of the following descriptions, that is to say—

(a)

an order (including an affiliation order or order consequent upon an affiliation order) which provides for the payment of a lump sum or the making of periodical payments towards the maintenance of any person, being a person whom the person liable to make payments under the order is, according to the law applied in the place where the order was made, liable to maintain;

(aa)

an order which has been made in Scotland, on or after the granting of a decree of divorce, for the payment of a periodical allowance by one party to the marriage to the other party;

(b)

an affiliation order or order consequent upon an affiliation order, being an order which provides for the payment by a person adjudged, found or declared to be a child’s father of expenses incidental to the child’s birth or, where the child has died, of his funeral expenses;

(c)

an order within the foregoing provisions of this definition made against a payer on the application of a public body which claims reimbursement of sums of money payable under the order with respect to the payee if reimbursement can be obtained by the public body under the law to which it is subject,

and, in the case of a maintenance order which has been varied, means that order as varied;

“order”, as respects Scotland, includes any interlocutor, and any decree or provision contained in an interlocutor;

“payee”, in relation to a maintenance order, means the person entitled to the payments for which the order provides;

“payer”, in relation to a maintenance order, means the person liable to make payments under the order;

“prescribed”, in relation to a magistrates’ court in Northern Ireland, means prescribed by rules made in accordance with Article 13 of the Magistrates’ Courts (Northern Ireland) Order 1981, and in relation to any other court means prescribed by rules of court;

“reciprocating country” has the meaning assigned to it by section 1 of this Act;

“registered order” means a maintenance order which is for the time being registered in a court in the United Kingdom under this Part of this Act and “registered” and “registration” shall be construed accordingly;

“registering court”, in relation to a registered order, means the court in which that order is for the time being registered under this Part of this Act;

“the responsible authority”, in relation to a reciprocating country, means any person who in that country has functions similar to those of the Lord Chancellor under this Part of this Act;

“revoke” and “revocation” include discharge;

“the United States of America” means the fifty States, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, and any other jurisdiction of the United States participating in Title IV-D of the Social Security Act (Title 42, United States Code, Chapter 7, subchapter IV, Part D).

(3) Any reference in this Part of this Act to the payment of money for the maintenance of a child shall be construed as including a reference to the payment of money for the child’s education.