{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/courts-act-2003/section-34",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/courts-act-2003/section-34.json",
  "legislation": "ukpga/2003/39",
  "legislation_title": "Courts Act 2003",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/courts-act-2003",
  "path": "section/34",
  "kind": "section",
  "number": "34",
  "heading": "Costs in legal proceedings",
  "text": "(1) A court may not order a justice of the peace to pay costs in any proceedings in respect of what he does or omits to do in the execution (or purported execution) of his duty as a justice of the peace.\n(2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .\n(3) But subsection (1) does not apply in relation to any proceedings in which a justice of the peace ...—\n(a) is being tried for an offence or is appealing against a conviction, or\n(b) is proved to have acted in bad faith in respect of the matters giving rise to the proceedings.\n(4) A court which is prevented by subsection (1) from ordering a justice of the peace to pay costs in any proceedings may instead order the Lord Chancellor to make a payment in respect of the costs of a person in the proceedings.\n(5) The Lord Chancellor may , after consulting the Lord Chief Justice, make regulations specifying—\n(a) circumstances in which a court must or must not exercise the power conferred on it by subsection (4), and\n(b) how the amount of any payment ordered under subsection (4) is to be determined.\n(6) The Lord Chief Justice may nominate a judicial office holder (as defined in section 109(4) of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005) to exercise his functions under this section.",
  "extent": "E+W",
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F1",
      "text": "S. 34(2) omitted (6.4.2020) by virtue of Courts and Tribunals (Judiciary and Functions of Staff) Act 2018 (c. 33), s. 4(3), Sch. para. 29(2); S.I. 2020/24, reg. 3(b)"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F2",
      "text": "Words in s. 34(3) substituted (6.4.2020) by Courts and Tribunals (Judiciary and Functions of Staff) Act 2018 (c. 33), s. 4(3), Sch. para. 29(3)(a); S.I. 2020/24, reg. 3(b)"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F3",
      "text": "Words in s. 34(3) omitted (6.4.2020) by virtue of Courts and Tribunals (Judiciary and Functions of Staff) Act 2018 (c. 33), s. 4(3), Sch. para. 29(3)(b); S.I. 2020/24, reg. 3(b)"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F4",
      "text": "Words in s. 34(4) substituted (6.4.2020) by Courts and Tribunals (Judiciary and Functions of Staff) Act 2018 (c. 33), s. 4(3), Sch. para. 29(4); S.I. 2020/24, reg. 3(b)"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F5",
      "text": "Words in s. 34(5) inserted (3.4.2006) by Constitutional Reform Act 2005 (c. 4), s. 15, Sch. 4 para. 329(2); S.I. 2006/1014, art. 2(a), Sch. 1 para. 11(y)"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F6",
      "text": "S. 34(6) inserted (3.4.2006) by Constitutional Reform Act 2005 (c. 4), s. 15, Sch. 4 para. 329(3); S.I. 2006/1014, art. 2(a), Sch. 1 para. 11(y)"
    }
  ],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/39/section/34",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T09:17:53.122162+00:00",
    "licence": "OGL-UK-3.0",
    "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
    "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
  }
}