The Reciprocal Enforcement of Maintenance Orders (United States of America) Order 1995

8.—(1) Section 9 shall be amended as follows.

(2) For subsection (1) there shall be substituted—

“(1) Subject to the provisions of this section—

(a) the registering court shall have the like power, on an application made by the payer or payee under a registered order, to vary the order as if it had been made by the registering court and as if that court had had jurisdiction to make it;

(b) the jurisdiction of a magistrates' court to vary a registered order shall be exercisable notwithstanding that proceedings for the variation of the order are brought by or against a person residing in a specified State.”.

(3) In subsection (1B), the words “or revoke” shall be omitted.

(4) For subsections (2) to (11) there shall be substituted—

“(2) Where an application is made by the payer to a registering court in the United Kingdom for the variation of a registered order, and the payee is residing in a specified State, the prescribed officer of the court shall—

(a) in the case of a court in England and Wales or Northern Ireland, send to the Lord Chancellor, or, in the case of a court in Scotland, send to the Secretary of State, notice of the institution of the proceedings with a view to its being transmitted by him to the appropriate authority in the specified State for service on the payee; and

(b) give the payee notice in writing of the date fixed for the hearing by sending the notice by post addressed to his last known or usual place of abode.

(3) Where such an application is made—

(a) the order shall not be varied unless the document mentioned in paragraph (a) of subsection (2) above has been served on the payee in accordance with the law for the service of such a document in the specified State;

(b) the court, in considering whether or not to make or vary the order, shall take into account any representations made and any evidence adduced by or on behalf of the payee; and

(c) a copy of any such representations and evidence shall be served on the payer by the prescribed officer of the court before the hearing.

(4) Where an application is made by the payee to a registering court in the United Kingdom for the variation of a registered order, and the payer is residing in the United Kingdom, the prescribed officer of the court shall serve the document mentioned in paragraph (a) of subsection (2) above on the payer.

(5) Where a registered order is varied by a registering court in the United Kingdom the prescribed officer of the court shall send the following documents, that is to say—

(a) three certified copies of the order of variation; and

(b) a written statement signed by that officer as to whether both the payer and the payee under the order appeared in the proceedings for the variation of the order and, if only the applicant appeared, the original or a certified copy of a document which establishes that notice of the institution of the proceedings had been served on the other party,

in the case of a court in England and Wales or Northern Ireland, to the Lord Chancellor, or, in the case of a court in Scotland, to the Secretary of State, with a view to their being transmitted by him to the appropriate authority in the specified State.

(6) Where a registered order has been varied by the registering court or by a court in a specified State, the prescribed officer of the registering court shall register the variation order in the prescribed manner.

(7) Where a registered order has been varied by the registering court or by a court in a specified State, the registered order shall, as from the date on which the variation order took effect, have effect as so varied.”.