Number of County Court Judgments on the increase

All judgments obtained via the Court system are recorded on the statutory public Register of Judgments, known as Registry Trust Limited “RTL”.

Since April 2006 RTL have been contracted by the Lord Chancellor to maintain the register and continue to record statistics for all jurisdictions including those of England and Wales.

All Judgment records remain on the register for a period of 6 years from the date of the Order of the Court, records are updated on the register to show if the debt is paid in full, they are only removed from the register if the debt is paid within 1 month of the Court Order and if payments are made after 1 month then the record may be recorded as satisfied but remains on the register for the rest of its term.

It was reported that there were some 321,044 County Court Judgments registered against consumers (individuals) in England and Wales, this was a 5% rise on the same quarter as 2018.

The RTL has recently reported that there has been a 12% increase in County Court Judgments against businesses in England and Wales during the first quarter of 2019. It was recorded that there were 35,779 County Court Judgments issued with a combined value of £107.2 million, this is a rise of some 6% on the same recorded period in 2018.

There is a need to act quickly to enforce as it’s the enforcement action that usually leads to recovery of the debt.

Enforcement actions include Charging Orders, Attachment of Earnings Order, Order to obtain information, Third Party Debt Order and Execution against Goods (Taking Control of Goods).

To ensure that your business does not become one of the statistics contact the Debt Recovery Team for assistance in recovery and enforcement of the debt.