{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/magistrates-courts-northern-ireland-order-1981/article-120",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/magistrates-courts-northern-ireland-order-1981/article-120.json",
  "legislation": "nisi/1981/1675",
  "legislation_title": "The Magistrates' Courts (Northern Ireland) Order 1981",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/magistrates-courts-northern-ireland-order-1981",
  "path": "article/120",
  "kind": "article",
  "number": "120",
  "heading": "Refusal of witness to testify",
  "text": "(1) If any person attending or brought before a magistrates' court refuses without just excuse to be sworn or give evidence, or to produce any document or thing, the court may commit him to custody until the expiration of such period not exceeding one month as may be specified in the warrant or until he sooner gives evidence or produces the document or thing or impose on him a fine not exceeding £2,500, or both.\n(2) Nothing in this Article shall prevent the court from disposing of a case in any manner in which it has power to do so.\n(3) An order under paragraph (1) for the payment of a fine may be enforced as though the fine were a sum adjudged to be paid by a conviction.",
  "extent": null,
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F1",
      "text": "Art. 118-118E and cross-headings substituted (1.1.2012) for art. 118 and preceding cross-heading by Justice Act (Northern Ireland) 2011 c. 24 (NI), ss. 100(1), 111(3) (with s. 106(4), Sch. 6 para. 8); S.R. 2011/370, art. 3(f)"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F2",
      "text": "1994 NI 15"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F3",
      "text": "1996 NI 24"
    },
    {
      "type": "C",
      "label": "C1",
      "text": "Art. 120 applied (with modifications) by 1972 c. 18, s. 14(3) (as amended) (22.4.2014) by Crime and Courts Act 2013 (c. 22), s. 61(3), Sch. 11 para. 37(1); S.I. 2014/954, art. 2(e) (with art. 3) (with transitional provisions and savings in S.I. 2014/956, arts. 3-11)"
    },
    {
      "type": "C",
      "label": "C2",
      "text": "Art. 120 applied by 1972 c. 18, s. 38(4) (as amended) (22.4.2014) by Crime and Courts Act 2013 (c. 22), s. 61(3), Sch. 11 para. 54; S.I. 2014/954, art. 2(e) (with art. 3) (with transitional provisions and savings in S.I. 2014/956, arts. 3-11)"
    }
  ],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisi/1981/1675/article/120",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-11-05T03:43:00.143829+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "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."
}