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MATRIMONIAL CAUSES (NORTHERN IRELAND) ORDER 1978 - SECT 37

37.(1) Where a maintenance agreement is for the time being subsisting and each
of the parties to the agreement is for the time being either domiciled or
resident in Northern Ireland, then, subject to paragraph (3), either party may
apply to the court or to a court of summary jurisdiction for an order under
this Article.

(2) If the court to which the application is made is satisfied either

(a)that by reason of a change in the circumstances in the light of which any
financial arrangements contained in the agreement were made or, as the case
may be, financial arrangements were omitted from it (including a change
foreseen by the parties when making the agreement), the agreement should be
altered so as to make different, or, as the case may be, so as to contain,
financial arrangements, or

(b)that the agreement does not contain proper financial arrangements with
respect to any child of the family,

(i)by varying or revoking any financial arrangements contained in it, or

(ii)by inserting in it financial arrangements for the benefit of one of the
parties to the agreement or of a child of the family,

(3) A court of summary jurisdiction shall not entertain an application under
paragraph (1) unless both the parties to the agreement are resident in
Northern Ireland and at least one of the parties is resident in the petty
sessions district for which the court acts, and shall not have power to make
any order on such an application except

(a)in a case where the agreement includes no provision for periodical payments
by either of the parties, an order inserting provision for the making by one
of the parties of periodical payments for the maintenance of the other party
or for the maintenance of any child of the family;

(b)in a case where the agreement includes provision for the making by one of
the parties of periodical payments, an order increasing or reducing the rate
of, or terminating, any of those payments.

(4) Where a court decides to alter, by order under this Article, an agreement
by inserting provision for the making or securing by one of the parties to the
agreement of periodical payments for the maintenance of the other party or by
increasing the rate of the periodical payments which the agreement provides
shall be made by one of the parties for the maintenance of the other, the term
for which the payments or, as the case may be, the additional payments
attributable to the increase are to be made under the agreement as altered by
the order shall be such term as the court may specify, subject to the
following limits, that is to say

(a)where the payments will not be secured, the term shall be so defined as not
to extend beyond the death of either of the parties to the agreement or the
remarriage of the party to whom the payments are to be made;

(b)where the payments will be secured, the term shall be so defined as not to
extend beyond the death or remarriage of that party.

(5) Where a court decides to alter, by order under this Article, an agreement
by inserting provision for the making or securing by one of the parties to the
agreement of periodical payments for the maintenance of a child of the family
or by increasing the rate of the periodical payments which the agreement
provides shall be made or secured by one of the parties for the maintenance of
such a child, then, in deciding the term for which under the agreement as
altered by the order the payments or, as the case may be, the additional
payments attributable to the increase are to be made or secured for the
benefit of the child, the court shall apply the provisions of Article 31(2)
and (3) as to age limits as if the order in question were a periodical
payments or secured periodical payments order in favour of the child.

(6) For the avoidance of doubt it is hereby declared that nothing in this
Article or in Article 36 affects any power of a court before which any
proceedings between the parties to a maintenance agreement are brought under
any other statutory provision (including a provision of this Order) to make an
order containing financial arrangements or any right of either party to apply
for such an order in such proceedings.

© 1978 Crown Copyright

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