{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/magistrates-courts-rules-1981/rule-66A",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/magistrates-courts-rules-1981/rule-66A.json",
  "legislation": "uksi/1981/552",
  "legislation_title": "The Magistrates' Courts Rules 1981",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/magistrates-courts-rules-1981",
  "path": "rule/66A",
  "kind": "rule",
  "number": "66A",
  "heading": "The open justice principle",
  "text": "(1) Where rules 66B, 66C, 66D and 66E apply, the designated officer and the court must have regard to the importance of—\n(a) dealing with cases in public;\n(b) allowing a public hearing to be reported to the public; and\n(c) the rights of a person affected by a direction or order made, or warrant issued, by the court to understand why that decision was made.\n(2) In rules 66D and 66E this requirement is called ‘the open justice principle’.",
  "extent": null,
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F1",
      "text": "Rules 66A-66E substituted for rules 66A, 66B (28.6.2021) by The Magistrates’ Courts (Amendment No. 2) Rules 2021 (S.I. 2021/626), rules 1(1), 2(8)"
    }
  ],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1981/552/rule/66A",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T18:40:56.682539+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."
}