Part 2Justices of the peace
Protection and indemnification of justices and justices' clerks
34Costs in legal proceedings
(1)
A court may not order a justice of the peace to pay costs in any proceedings in respect of what he does or omits to do in the execution (or purported execution) of his duty as a justice of the peace.
(2)
A court may not order—
(a)
a justices' clerk, or
(b)
an assistant clerk,
to pay costs in any proceedings in respect of what he does or omits to do in the execution (or purported execution) of his duty as a justices' clerk or assistant clerk exercising, by virtue of an enactment, a function of a single justice of the peace.
(3)
But subsections (1) and (2) do not apply in relation to any proceedings in which a justice of the peace, justices' clerk or assistant clerk—
(a)
is being tried for an offence or is appealing against a conviction, or
(b)
is proved to have acted in bad faith in respect of the matters giving rise to the proceedings.
(4)
A court which is prevented by subsection (1) or (2) from ordering a justice of the peace, justices' clerk or assistant clerk to pay costs in any proceedings may instead order the Lord Chancellor to make a payment in respect of the costs of a person in the proceedings.
(5)
The Lord Chancellor may make regulations specifying—
(a)
circumstances in which a court must or must not exercise the power conferred on it by subsection (4), and
(b)
how the amount of any payment ordered under subsection (4) is to be determined.