Point in time view as at 31/12/2020.
The Magistrates' Courts (Northern Ireland) Order 1981, Section 73 is up to date with all changes known to be in force on or before 07 March 2025. There are changes that may be brought into force at a future date. Changes that have been made appear in the content and are referenced with annotations.
73.—(1) Subject to this Article, in debt or ejectment proceedings, the court shall hear the parties, and evidence in support of the claim or defence or counterclaim, if any.
(2) Where the plaintiff appears but the defendant does not appear, the court may, after proof of service of the process upon the defendant, proceed in his absence or adjourn the proceedings.
(3) Where neither the plaintiff nor defendant appears, or where the plaintiff does not appear and the defendant though appearing does not apply for a dismissal of the claim, the court may strike out the proceedings.
(4) Where the plaintiff informs the court that he does not wish to apply for an order and the defendant does not appear, or if appearing, does not object, the court may allow the proceedings to be withdrawn.
(5) The court may, without hearing the parties or any evidence, upon such conditions as may be prescribed, make an order against a defendant upon his consent to the making of such order.
(6) The court may dismiss a claim in debt or ejectment proceedings either upon the merits or without prejudice to a further claim in respect of the same matter.
All content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. This site additionally contains content derived from EUR-Lex, reused under the terms of the Commission Decision 2011/833/EU on the reuse of documents from the EU institutions. For more information see the EUR-Lex public statement on re-use.
