Courts and Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2023

Unpaid fees

108. The Act of 1936 is amended by the insertion of the following section after section 65:

“65A. (1) Where an accountable person, being a person, whether acting on his or her own behalf, or on behalf of another person, who is obliged to discharge a fee prescribed by the Minister under section 65(1), has not paid or, as the case may be, not fully paid the fee concerned on the occasion upon which such fee is prescribed to be paid—

(a) the accountable person shall be liable, and where there is more than one such accountable person they shall be liable jointly and severally, for the payment of the fee unpaid or, as the case may be, the portion of the fee remaining unpaid, and

(b) the fee or, as the case may be, the portion of the fee remaining unpaid—

(i) shall be deemed to be a debt due by the accountable person to the Courts Service, and

(ii) shall be payable to the Courts Service and may (without prejudice to any other mode of recovery of the fee or portion of the fee remaining unpaid) be sued for and recovered as a simple contract debt by action, or other appropriate proceedings, at the suit of the Courts Service in any court of competent jurisdiction.”.