Page 4436 - Week 14 - Thursday, 9 December 1993
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The Magistrates Court (Civil Jurisdiction) (Amendment) Bill 1993 will consequently amend the Magistrates Court (Civil Jurisdiction) Act 1982 as part of the amendment of the fees and charges regime by omitting the definition of "determined fee" in section 3 and references to determined fees, and by repealing section 292. Section 292 imposes the liability to pay determined fees, sets out when the filing fee is to be paid, provides for exemptions from payment and makes provision for an unsuccessful party, against whom costs are awarded, to pay certain fees where a successful party has not had to pay them. The Bill also repeals section 307B, which grants to the Minister the power to make fees determinations. The substance of the relevant provisions will be relocated in the Magistrates Court Act.
The Magistrates Court (Civil Jurisdiction) (Amendment) Bill 1993 will also amend section 306A of the Magistrates Court (Civil Jurisdiction) Act in relation to the entitlement to inspect a register containing particulars of default judgments. There is, in effect, no longer a register as such, and the Bill alters that entitlement to an entitlement to inspect a record of the court containing such particulars rather than an entitlement to inspect the register itself or the documents in it. I commend the Bill to the Assembly and present the explanatory memorandum.
Debate (on motion by Mr Humphries) adjourned.
SMALL CLAIMS (AMENDMENT) BILL 1993
MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General, Minister for Housing and Community Services and Minister for Urban Services) (11.05): I present the Small Claims (Amendment) Bill 1993.
Title read by Clerk.
MR CONNOLLY: Madam Speaker, I move:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
This Bill, among other things, will amend the power to determine fees and charges in the Small Claims Court. It comprises, with the other interlocking Bills, a package of Bills which broadens the power to determine fees and charges and locates that power within the Magistrates Court Act. Amendment of the Small Claims Act in this way is part of a larger legislative exercise to introduce, as far as is appropriate, substantially similar fees and charges provisions into the courts and Administrative Appeals Tribunal legislation.
The Small Claims (Amendment) Bill 1993 will consequently amend the Small Claims Act 1974 by omitting the definition of "determined fee" from section 3 of that Act, by amending paragraph 29(1A)(a) to refer to a determination made under the Magistrates Court Act and by repealing sections 46 and 50A. Section 46 imposes the obligation to pay the determined fee, sets the fees in respect of warrants of execution, and provides for exemption from payment of fees in hardship cases. Section 50A confers on the Minister the power to determine fees for the purposes of the Act.
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