to get child support from delinquent dads or moms.

Applications to secure child support debts or for attachment-of-earnings orders are now free. Previously, they cost up to $10.

The revision was part of an amendment to the Court Fees and Expenses Act, passed unanimously in the Senate on Wednesday.

The changes were in response to inflation, Government Finance spokesman Sen.

Wendell Hollis said.

They were not related to Government's war on delinquent dads, he said, which saw the creation of a Family and Child Support Office to address a staggering $8 million in child maintenance arrears.

Sen. Hollis pointed out most court fees and expenses had not been changed since 1974.

Other changes included hiking the fee from $10 to $40 to resolve landlord/tenant disputes in court, while lowering the fees for other citizens to sue each other.

The largest increases were for applications to adopt children or appoint guardians for them. They were increased from $10 to $125, because of the amount of work that goes into such applications, Sen. Hollis said.

Senate Opposition Leader Sen. Alex Scott said the Progressive Labour Party supported the amendments.

However, he said it was an "irony'' that one of the areas fees were decreased made it easier for Bermudians to take each other to court.

And he suggested the increases were not high enough, considering most of the fees had not been revised in two decades.

Sen. Norma Astwood (Ind) agreed, saying the $125 adoption application fee would not nearly cover the expense of the process to Social Services.

She called for a "real revision'' of the fees, saying Government had to explore all avenues of raising revenue, but without "unduly penalising residents financially''.