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237A: Amendments to Schedule 1A
or “This part tells us how changes are made to a special list in the law.”
You could also call this:

“Rules about when you don't have to pay court fees or can pay them later”

The Governor-General can make rules that allow a court Registrar to change how you pay fees for court cases. This is to help more people access justice. The Registrar can waive fees (so you don’t have to pay them), reduce fees (so you pay less), postpone fees (so you can pay later), or give you a refund if you’ve already paid.

The Registrar can only do this if they’re sure that you can’t pay the fee, or if the case is about something really important for the public and wouldn’t go ahead without help with the fees.

These rules also say how the Registrar should decide if you can pay a fee and what makes a case important for the public.

You don’t have to pay anything to ask the Registrar to change your fees.

The rules about changing fees are a type of law called secondary legislation. You can find out how these rules are published by looking at Part 3 of the Legislation Act 2019.

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Next up: 237C: Postponement of fees

or “You can ask to pay court fees later while waiting for a decision about getting help with fees.”
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Part 11 General provisions
Miscellaneous provisions

237BRegulations providing for waiver, etc, of fees

  1. 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.

  2. 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—

  3. the person responsible for payment of the fee is unable to pay or absorb the fee in whole or in part; or
    1. 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.

      1. For the purposes of subsection (2), regulations may prescribe criteria—

      2. for assessing a person's ability to pay a fee; and
        1. for identifying proceedings that concern matters of genuine public interest.

          1. No fee is payable for an application for the exercise of a power specified in subsection (1).

          2. Regulations under this section are secondary legislation (see Part 3 of the Legislation Act 2019 for publication requirements).

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          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).