Revised Laws of Saint Lucia (2021)

5.   Making of provisional orders

1.  

   (1)   Where an application is made to a district court in Saint Lucia for a maintenance order against any person, and it is proved that that person is resident in England or Ireland, the court may, in the absence of that person, if after hearing the evidence it is satisfied of the justice of the application, make any such order as it might have made if a summons had been duly served on that person and he or she had failed to appear at the hearing, but in such case the order is provisional only, and has no effect unless and until confirmed by a competent court in England or Ireland.

1.  

   (2)   The evidence of any witness who is examined on any such application shall be put into writing, and such deposition shall be read over to and signed by him or her.

1.  

   (3)   Where such an order is made, the court shall send to the Governor General the depositions so taken and a certified copy of the order, together with a statement of the grounds on which the making of the order might have been opposed if the person against whom the order is made had been duly served with a summons and had appeared at the hearing, and such information as the court possesses for facilitating the identification of that person, and ascertaining his or her whereabouts.

1.  

   (4)   Where any such provisional order comes before a court in England or Ireland for confirmation, and the order is by that court remitted to the district court which made the order for the purpose of taking further evidence, that court or any other district court sitting and acting for the same place shall, after giving the prescribed notice, proceed to take the evidence in like manner and subject to the like conditions as the evidence in support of the original application.

If upon the hearing of such evidence it appears to the court that the order ought not to have been made, the court may rescind the order, but in any other case the depositions shall be sent to the Governor General and dealt with in like manner as the original depositions.

1.  

   (5)   The confirmation of an order made under this section does not affect any power of a district court to vary or rescind that order. However, on the making of a varying or rescinding order the court shall send a certified copy thereof to the Governor General, and that in the case of an order varying the original order the order does not have any effect unless and until confirmed in like manner as the original order.

1.  

   (6)   The applicant has the same right of appeal, if any, against a refusal to make a provisional order as he or she would have had against a refusal to make the order had a summons been duly served on the person against whom the order is sought to be made.