The Magistrates’ Courts (Amendment) Rules 2024

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Rules)

These Rules amend the Magistrates’ Courts Rules 1981, S.I. 1981/552, as follows:

(a) rule 2 is amended to include definitions relevant to new rules 17 to 23.

(b) new rules 3 and 81A are added to provide for the duties of justices’ legal advisers.

(c) new rule 3D is added to provide for the making of applications, the giving of notices or the supply of information either by means of forms issued by the Chief Justice or by means of electronic arrangements.

(d) new rules 17 to 23 and 84 to 86 are added, and rules 3C, 99 and 115 are amended, to accommodate the provision for domestic abuse protection orders made by the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, the principal sections of which Act supplemented by these Rules are:

(i) section 28, under which a chief officer of police may apply to a magistrates’ court by complaint for a domestic abuse protection order, and must do so if a person is given a domestic abuse protection notice by police under section 22. (Under section 29 the hearing of an application made as a result of giving a domestic abuse protection notice must begin not later than 48 hours after that giving, disregarding any day which is a Sunday, Christmas Day, Good Friday or a bank holiday. If in the meantime the defendant to whom the notice was given is arrested for its breach then that defendant must be brought before the magistrates’ court within 24 hours of that arrest, disregarding the same days and the court may then remand the defendant on bail or in custody.)

(ii) section 34, under which a magistrates’ court may make an order on application by a chief officer of police even though the defendant has not been given a domestic abuse protection notice or had any other notice of the application. (Under section 34(3), in deciding whether to make an order without notice the court must have regard to all the circumstances, including: any risk that, if the order is not made immediately, the defendant will cause significant harm to the person for whose protection the order would be made; whether there is reason to believe that the defendant is aware of the proceedings but is deliberately evading service; and whether the delay involved in effecting substituted service will cause serious prejudice to the person for whose protection the order would be made. Under section 34(4), if the court makes an order it must then give the defendant an opportunity to make representations about it as soon as just and convenient, and at a hearing of which notice has been given to all the parties.)

(iii) sections 44 and 45, under which the person for whose protection an order is made, the defendant against whom the order is made or the relevant chief officer of police (as defined by the Act) all can apply to the court to vary or discharge the order.

(iv) section 49, which allows the court to direct the same special measures for witnesses under the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999 as can be directed under that Act in criminal proceedings.

(v) sections 27, 30, 32, 33, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 41, 42 and 43 which define a domestic abuse protection order, prescribe the conditions for making such an order, describe the requirements that may be imposed, and make other provisions about an order’s terms and effect.

(e) rule 34 is amended to accommodate, in particular, provision for applications in respect of rights of way added to the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 by the Deregulation Act 2015.

(f) rule 66 is amended to provide for correction of the court register and to omit requirements superseded by Criminal Procedure Rules.

(g) rule 67 is amended to omit obsolete procedural requirements about the service of documents.

These Rules also amend the Magistrates’ Courts (Hearsay Evidence in Civil Proceedings) Rules 1999, S.I. 1999/681, to disapply rules about hearsay evidence on an application for a domestic abuse protection order.

A full impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no, or no significant, impact on the private, voluntary or public sectors is foreseen.

These Rules come into force on 8th April 2024.