The Family Court (Composition and Distribution of Business) Rules 2014
| Year | 2014 |
2014No. 840 (L. 13)
FAMILY PROCEEDINGS
SENIOR COURTS OF ENGLAND AND WALES
FAMILY COURT, ENGLAND AND WALES
The Family Court (Composition and Distribution of Business) Rules 2014
31stMarch2014
1stApril2014
22ndApril2014
The President of the Family Division, as nominee of the Lord Chief Justice under paragraph 2(2)(b) of Part 1 of Schedule 1 to the Constitutional Reform Act 2005( 1), makes the following rules in exercise of the powers conferred by section 31D(1), (2), (3) and (5)(a) of the Matrimonial and Family Proceedings Act 1984( 2).
These Rules are made after consultation with the Family Procedure Rule Committee in accordance with section 31D(5)(b) of the Matrimonial and Family Proceedings Act 1984.
These Rules are made with the agreement of the Lord Chancellor in accordance with paragraph 2 of Part 1 of Schedule 1 to the Constitutional Reform Act 2005.
PART 1
Introductory provisions
Citation, commencement and interpretation
1. These Rules may be cited as the Family Court (Composition and Distribution of Business) Rules 2014 and come into force on 22nd April 2014.
2. (1) In these Rules-
"the 1991 Act" means the Child Support Act 1991( 3);
"appeal" includes an application seeking permission to appeal and an application in the course of the appeal proceedings;
"assistant to a justices' clerk" has the meaning given in section 27(5) of the Courts Act 2003( 4);
"authorised", except in the context of references to an authorised court officer, means authorised by the President of the Family Division or nominated by or on behalf of the Lord Chief Justice to conduct particular business in the family court, in accordance with Part 3;
"authorised court officer" has the meaning assigned to it by rule 44.1 of the Civil Procedure Rules 1998( 5) as applied to family proceedings by rule 28.2(1) of the Family Procedure Rules 2010( 6);
"costs judge" means-
(a) the Chief Taxing Master;(b) a taxing master of the Senior Courts; or(c) a person appointed to act as deputy for the person holding office referred to in paragraph (b) or to act as a temporary additional officer for any such office;"financial remedy" has the meaning assigned to it by rule 2.3 of the Family Procedure Rules 2010;
"judge of circuit judge level" means-
(a) a circuit judge who, where applicable, is authorised;(b) a Recorder who, where applicable, is authorised;(c) any other judge of the family court authorised to sit as a judge of circuit judge level in the family court;"judge of district judge level" means-
(a) the Senior District Judge of the Family Division;(b) a district judge of the Principal Registry of the Family Division;(c) a person appointed to act as deputy for the person holding office referred to in paragraph (b) or to act as a temporary additional officer for any such office;(d) a district judge who, where applicable, is authorised;(e) a deputy district judge appointed under section 102 of the Senior Courts Act 1981( 7) or section 8 of the County Courts Act 1984( 8) who, where applicable, is authorised;(f) an authorised District Judge (Magistrates' Courts);(g) any other judge of the family court authorised to sit as a judge of district judge level in the family court."judge of High Court judge level" means-
(a) a deputy judge of the High Court;(b) a puisne judge of the High Court;(c) a person who has been a judge of the Court of Appeal or a puisne judge of the High Court who may act as a judge of the family court by virtue of section 9 of the Senior Courts Act 1981( 9);(d) the Senior President of Tribunals;(e) the Chancellor of the High Court;(f) an ordinary judge of the Court of Appeal (including the vice-president, if any, of either division of that court);(g) the President of the Queen's Bench Division;(h) the President of the Family Division;(i) the Master of the Rolls;(j) the Lord Chief Justice;"judge of the family court" means a judge referred to in section 31C(1) of the Matrimonial and Family Proceedings Act 1984( 10);
"justices' clerk" has the meaning given in section 27(1) of the Courts Act 2003( 11); and
"lay justice" means an authorised justice of the peace who is not a District Judge (Magistrates' Courts).
(2) In these Rules, references to provisions of the Adoption and Children Act 2002( 12) include, as applicable, references to those provisions as modified by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology (Parental Orders) Regulations 2010( 13).
PART 2
Composition of the family court
Composition: general
3. (1) Subject to rules in this Part, the family court shall be composed of-
(a) one of the following-(i) a judge of district judge level;(ii) a judge of circuit judge level; or(iii) a judge of High Court judge level; or(b) two or three lay justices.(2) Where paragraph (1)(b) applies, the court shall include, so far as is practicable, both a man and a woman.
Composition: allocation decision
4. When making a decision on allocation to which rule 20 applies, the family court shall be composed of one or more of the following -
(a) a judge of district judge level;(b) a judge of circuit judge level.Composition: appeals heard by a judge of district judge level
5. (1) Subject to rule 7, the family court shall be composed of a judge of district judge level when hearing an appeal from the decision of the Secretary of State where an appeal is brought under-
(a) regulation 25AB(1) of the Child Support (Collection and Enforcement) Regulations 1992 (Appeals)( 14);(b) section 20(1) (a) or (b) of the 1991 Act to a court by virtue of article 3 of the Child Support Appeals (Jurisdiction of Courts) Order 2002( 15) (Parentage appeals to be made to courts).(2) The family court may be composed of a judge of district judge level when hearing applications in the course of appeal proceedings against decisions of persons referred to in rule 6(2)(b) to (d) or decisions of the court referred to in rule 6(3).
(3) The family court shall be composed of a costs judge or a district judge of the High Court when hearing an appeal against the decision of an authorised court officer.
Composition: appeals heard by a judge of circuit judge level or a judge of High Court level
6. (1) Subject to rule 7, when hearing an appeal from the decisions of persons referred to in paragraph (2) or the court referred to in paragraph (3), the family court shall be composed of-
(a) a judge of circuit judge level; or(b) a judge of High Court level where there is a need for such a level of judge to hear the appeal to make most effective and efficient use of local judicial resource and the resource of the High Court bench.(2) The persons referred to in paragraph (1) are-
(a) a judge of district judge level;(b) two or three lay justices;(c) a lay justice; or(d) a justices' clerk or an assistant to a justices' clerk.(3) The court referred to in paragraph (1) is a magistrates' court where an appeal is brought under section 111A of the Magistrates' Courts Act 1980( 16) (appeals on ground of error of law in child support proceedings).
Composition: appeals heard by a judge of High Court level
7. (1) The family court shall be composed of a judge of High Court level when hearing an appeal from the decision of-
(a) the Senior District Judge of the Family Division in financial remedy proceedings;(b) a district judge of the Principal Registry of the Family Division in financial remedy proceedings or a person appointed to act as deputy or as a temporary additional officer for such a district judge in these proceedings;(c) a costs judge; or(d) the Gender Recognition Panel where an appeal is brought under section 8(1) of the Gender Recognition Act 2004( 17) (Appeals etc.).(2) The family court shall be composed of a judge of High Court level (instead of a judge of district judge level or a judge of circuit judge level) where there is-
(a) an appeal against a decision referred to in rules 5 and 6; and(b) the Designated Family Judge or a judge of High Court level considers that the appeal would raise an important point of principle or practice.Composition: matters part heard
8. (1) Paragraph (2) applies where a hearing-
(a) was before two or three lay justices; and(b) was part heard.(2) The court which resumes the hearing shall, wherever possible, be composed of the same lay justices as dealt with the previous part of the hearing.
PART 3
Authorisations
Powers to grant authorisations
9. (1) Paragraph (2) applies to business in such categories as may be specified from time to time by the President of the Family Division.
(2) A judge of district judge level or a judge of circuit judge level may conduct business to which this paragraph applies in the family court only if authorised by the President of the Family Division to do so.
(3) The President of the Family Division may specify the matters referred to in paragraph (1) in directions, after consulting the Lord Chancellor.
(4) A lay justice may conduct business in the family court only if authorised by the Lord Chief Justice to do so.
PART 4
Lay justices: chairmanship of the family court
Interpretation of this Part
10. In this Part-
"2007 Rules" means the Justices of the Peace (Training and Development Committee) Rules 2007( 18);
"BTDC" means the Bench Training and Development Committee established in accordance with the 2007 Rules; and
"FTDC" means the Family Training and Development Committee established in accordance with the 2007 Rules.
Chairman
11. (1) When the family court is composed of two or three lay justices, it shall sit under the chairmanship of a lay justice who is on a list of approved family court chairmen.
(2) A lay justice may preside before being included on a list of approved family court chairmen only if that lay justice is-
(a) under the supervision of another authorised lay justice who is on the list of approved family court chairmen; and(b) has completed the training course required by rule 31 of the 2007 Rules.(3) In this rule "list of approved family court chairmen" means a list kept by a FTDC or, where there...
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