Explanatory note

These rules amend the Magistrates' Courts (Maintenance Orders Act 1958) Rules 1959 (“the rules of 1959”) in consequence of the amendments made to the Maintenance Orders Act 1950 and the Maintenance Orders Act 1958 by section 3 of, and Schedule 3 to, the Administration of Justice Act 1977 (c.38). The broad effect of those amendments is to enable a maintenance order made by a superior court in Scotland or Northern Ireland to be registered in a magistrates' court and a maintenance order made by an inferior court in Scotland or Northern Ireland to be registered in the High Court.

In particular these rules insert three new rules into the rules of 1959 namely rule 2A (receipt by magistrates' court of notice of registration in the High Court of order previously registered in magistrates' court), rule 4A (registration in magistrates' court of order made in Court of Session or High Court in Northern Ireland) and rule 8A (notice of cancellation of registration in the High Court under Part I of the Act of 1958). Rule 11 and the Schedule to these rules substitute new Forms 3, 6, 8, 9, and 10 in the Schedule to the rules of 1959.