New South Wales Consolidated Acts

IMPERIAL ACTS APPLICATION ACT 1969 - SECT 40

40 Duties on arrest of civil debtors

(1) Where any bailiff or other officer arrests or has in custody upon mesne process any person in the course of a civil proceeding such officer shall not:

(a) convey such person without his free consent to any premises licensed for the sale of intoxicating liquor or any registered club, or to the private house of such officer or any tenant or relative of such officer; nor

(b) charge such person with any sum for, or procure him to call or pay for, any liquor, food, or thing whatsoever, except what he freely asks for; nor

(c) take such person to any gaol within twenty-four hours of his arrest, unless such person fails to name or refuses to be carried to some safe and convenient house of his own nomination, being within a reasonable distance of the place at which he was arrested, and not being the private dwelling-house of such person,

but shall during such twenty-four hours permit such person to send for and to have brought to him at reasonable times in the day and in reasonable quantities any food or liquor from what place he thinks fit, and also to have and use such bedding, linen, and other necessary things as he has occasion for or is supplied with, and shall not require any payment for the use thereof or restrict the use thereof.

(2) Where a bailiff or other officer makes an arrest to which this section applies he shall as promptly as reasonably possible inform the person arrested of the effect of subsection one of this section.