The Magistrates' Courts (Amendment) Rules 1983

EXPLANATORY NOTE

These Rules amend the Magistrates' Courts Rules 1981 in consequence of the following provisions of the Criminal Justice Act 1982 (c. 48) which come into force on 24th May 1983 (S.I. 1983/182) (the rule amended being indicated in brackets)—

Section 51(1) (variation of instalments) (Rule 65);

Section 59 and Schedule 9 (remand in custody in absence of accused) (Rules 25 and 66);

Section 60 (applications to Crown Court for bail by persons remanded in custody) (Rules 66 and 90);

Section 61 (legal representation in cases of committal on written statements) (Rule 6);

Section 72 (abolition of right of accused to make unsworn statement) (Rule 13).

The Rules also make various amendments to the 1981 Rules which are unrelated to the coming into force of the 1982 Act the most important of which are the amendments to Rules 11, 54, 60 and 99. Rule 11 is amended so as to require a justices' clerk to send specified legal aid documents to the Crown Court within 4 days after a person's committal for trial. Rule 54 is amended so that, where a distress warrant is levied against a person who has tools and implements of his trade in excess of £150, only tools and implements as will leave in that person's possession tools and implements to the value of £150 may be taken. The amendment to Rule 60 substitutes a new method for apportioning between two or more periodical payments orders any sum received by the justices' clerk which is less than the total sum due under those orders. Any such sum is to be apportioned between the orders in proportion to the amounts required to be paid under each order. Rule 99(2) is amended so that, if a person summoned fails to appear in a case where service of a summons has been effected by leaving it with some other person at the summoned person's last known or usual place of abode, it is no longer necessary to prove that the summons came to the summoned person's knowledge before service is treated as proved.