Maintenance Orders Act 1958

2Registration of orders

(1)A person entitled to receive payments under a High Court or county court order may apply for the registration of the order to the original court, and the court may, if it thinks fit, grant the application.

(2)Where an application for the registration of such an order is granted—

(a)no proceedings shall be begun, and no writ, warrant or other process shall be issued, for the enforcement of the order before the registration of the order or the expiration of the prescribed period from the grant of the application, whichever first occurs; and

(b)the original court shall, on being satisfied within the period aforesaid by the person who made the application that no such proceedings or process begun or issued before the grant of the application remain pending or in force, cause a certified copy of the order to be sent to the clerk of the magistrates' court acting for the petty sessions area in which the defendant appears to be;

but if at the expiration of the period aforesaid the original court has not been so satisfied, the grant of the application shall become void.

(3)A person entitled to receive payments under a magistrates' court order who considers that the order could be more effectively enforced if it were registered may apply for the registration of the order to the original court, and the court shall grant the application on being satisfied in the prescribed manner that, at the time when the application was made, an amount equal to not less, in the case of an order for weekly payments, than four or, in any other case, than two of the payments required by the order was due thereunder and unpaid.

(4)Where an application for the registration of a magistrates' court order is granted—

(a)no proceedings for the enforcement of the order shall be begun before the registration takes place and no warrant or other process for the enforcement thereof shall be issued in consequence of any such proceedings begun before the grant of the application ;

(b)any warrant of commitment issued for the enforcement of the order shall cease to have effect when the person in possession of the warrant is informed of the grant of the application, unless the defendant has then already been detained in pursuance of the warrant; and

(c)the original court shall, on being satisfied in the prescribed manner that no process for the enforcement of the order issued before the grant of the application remains in force, cause a certified copy of the order to be sent to the prescribed officer of the High Court.

(5)The officer or clerk of a court who receives a certified copy of an order sent to him under this section shall cause the order to be registered in that court.

(6)Subsections (1) to (4) of section nineteen of the Maintenance Orders Act, 1950 (which provide for the suspension, while a magistrates' court order is registered under Part II of that Act, of any provision of the order requiring payments to be made through a third party, for ordering payments under an order so registered in a magistrates' court to be paid through a collecting officer, and for authorising a person to make payments otherwise than in accordance with the requirements of that section until he has notice of those requirements) shall have effect for the purposes of this Part of this Act as if for any reference in that section to the said Part II and a maintenance order there were substituted a reference to this Part of this Act and a maintenance order to which this Part of this Act applies.

(7)In this section " certified copy " in relation to an order of a court means a copy certified by the proper officer of the court to be a true copy of the order or of the official record thereof.