Citation and interpretation

1.—(1) These Rules may be cited as the County Court (Amendment) Rules (Northern Ireland) 2003.

(2) In these Rules a reference to an Order, Rule, Form or Appendix by number is a reference to that Order, Rule or Appendix as numbered in the County Court Rules (Northern Ireland) 1981(2).

Small Claims

2.  In Order 26, for Rule 24 there shall be substituted the following new Rule –

“24.  An application in Form 127 or 128 may only be made with the judge’s permission –

(a)if the claim is brought against the Crown; or

(b)if in any such proceedings as are mentioned in section 139(1)(b) of the Consumer Credit Act 1974(3) the debtor or surety desires to have a credit agreement re-opened.”.

Appeals

3.  Order 32 is amended as follows –

(a)in paragraph (4) of Rule 1, for the words “Every such notice” there shall be substituted the words “Subject to paragraphs (4A) and (4B), every such notice”; and

(b)after paragraph (4) of Rule 1 there shall be inserted the following new paragraphs –

“(4A) If the appeal is brought under section 35A or section 40B of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 (in this Rule referred to as “the Act”)(4) against a decision of the Secretary of State to impose a penalty under section 32 of the Act or a charge under section 40 of the Act, the appeal notice must, subject to paragraph (4B), be served within twenty-eight days after receiving the penalty notice or charge notice.

(4B) If notice of objection has been given to the Secretary of State under section 35(4) or section 40A(3) of the Act(5) within the time prescribed for doing so, the appeal notice must be served within 28 days after receiving notice of the Secretary of State’s decision in response to the notice of objection.”.

Adoption

4.  Order 50 and Forms 249 to 262 are hereby revoked but nothing in this Rule will effect any application commenced before this Rule comes into operation.

Costs

5.  In Part VIII of Appendix 2 for paragraph 2 there shall be substituted the following new paragraph –

“2.  In equity and title matters solicitor’s costs and counsel’s fees shall be determined in accordance with Tables 1 and 2 respectively.

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Rules.)

These Rules amend the County Court Rules (Northern Ireland) 1981 so as to:

• make a minor amendment to small claims procedure (Rule 2);

• prescribe the time limit for serving notice of appeal under section 35A or section 40B of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 (Rule 3);

• revoke Order 50 and the associated Forms as the adoption procedures are now contained in the Family Proceedings Rules (Northern Ireland) 1996 (S.R. 1996 No. 322 as amended by S.R. 2003 No. 75) (Rule 4); and

• substitute new Tables in relation to solicitor’s costs and counsel’s fees in equity and title proceedings (Rule 5).