Part 11General provisions
Miscellaneous provisions
237BRegulations providing for waiver, etc, of fees
In order to promote access to justice, the Governor-General may, by Order in Council, make regulations authorising a Registrar of the court to waive, reduce, or postpone the payment of a fee required in connection with a proceeding or an intended proceeding, or to refund in whole or in part a fee that has already been paid.
Regulations made under subsection (1) must provide that a Registrar of the court may exercise a power under the regulations only if he or she is satisfied on the basis of prescribed criteria that—
- the person responsible for payment of the fee is unable to pay or absorb the fee in whole or in part; or
- unless 1 or more of those powers are exercised in respect of a proceeding that concerns a matter of genuine public interest, the proceeding is unlikely to be commenced or continued.
For the purposes of subsection (2), regulations may prescribe criteria—
- for assessing a person's ability to pay a fee; and
- for identifying proceedings that concern matters of genuine public interest.
No fee is payable for an application for the exercise of a power specified in subsection (1).
Regulations under this section are secondary legislation (see Part 3 of the Legislation Act 2019 for publication requirements).
Compare
- 1947 No 16 s 123(1)(ba), (bb), (2)
Notes
- Section 237B: inserted, on , by section 14 of the Employment Relations Amendment Act (No 2) 2016 (2016 No 62).
- Section 237B(5): inserted, on , by section 3 of the Secondary Legislation Act 2021 (2021 No 7).