Rule 150 Taking of recognizances

Every recognizance shall specify in full the name and address of each party bound and the amount in which each party is bound thereby.

A recognizance may be taken by a district judge (magistrates’ courts), lay magistrate, clerk of petty sessions, or, where the person to be bound thereby is in prison or in a juvenile justice centre or is a surety for such person, the governor or deputy governor of the prison or the person in charge of the [^f1 centre], as the case may be.

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Where an appellant is in Great Britain a recognizance under Article 149 of the Order may be taken from him by a justice of the peace [lay magistrate] or clerk to the justices or, as the case may be, a sheriff, sheriff depute, sheriff clerk or sheriff clerk depute.

Every recognizance shall be signed by each party acknowledging that he is bound thereby and by the person taking it.

A person authorised to take a recognizance may require a person offering himself as surety to a recognizance to produce evidence as to his means and as to his identity and place of abode and to sign a certificate that he is possessed of sufficient means to pay the sum in which he is to be bound under the recognizance.

Such certificate shall be attached to or endorsed on the recognizance.

Where the party to be bound is a body corporate the recognizance shall be signed by a director or officer thereof.

Where a person has deposited a sum of money or other valuable security with the clerk of petty sessions in lieu of sureties to a recognizance to prosecute an appeal to the county court or by way of case stated to the Court of Appeal, that recognizance may, where the person to be bound is outside Northern Ireland or is ill or is unable to attend at the time when he is required to enter it, be signed by his solicitor on behalf of and in the name of that person.