Enforcement Of Judgment

Once you have a formal court order in your favour known as a County Court Judgment (CCJ) or Court Judgment, you can use legal methods known as enforcement proceedings to get your money back.

For debt recovery cases, the individual or company who owes the money is called the Judgment Debtor and the individual or company who the money is owed to is called the Judgment Creditor.

Once a Court Judgment has been made, it is up to the Judgment Debtor to pay the Judgment Creditor quickly to avoid further complications arising for the Debtor.

When you have obtained a Court Judgment against an individual or company for the money that they owe you, we can enforce this Judgment to make sure you get paid as soon as possible.

Enforcement can be done in one of many ways including the High Court Enforcement Officer, Attachment of Earnings Order, Third Party Debt Order, Charging Orders, Statutory Demands and more.

Our expertise and experience in this field allows us to advise you of which method is the most suitable for your situation and how we will go about actioning this debt recovery process.

If the Judgment Debtor remains unresponsive or uncooperative after the Court Order has been given, we will enforce the Judgment by seeking the help of a High Court Enforcement Officer (HCEO) or County Court Bailiff.

The HCEO will visit the Judgment Debtor to collect the money owed, or if this proves impossible or difficult then the next step would be to seize their assets to sell.

It is worth noting that the Judgment Debtor is partly responsible for the cost of instructing the HCEO or bailiff, unless they are unable to collect your debt in full in which case you would be responsible for the costs.

As part of the CCJ, the Judgment Debtor may have been ordered to make multiple payments to the Creditor to pay off their debt.

Should the Debtor fail to make at least one of their payments, the Attachment of Earnings Order (AEO) is a request to the court for permission to recover the debt through the Debtor’s wages or earnings.

There are a few rules such as the AEO cannot be granted if the debtor is unemployed, self-employed or in the army. It also cannot usually be used at the same time as other methods of enforcing.

If the Judgment Debtor has money in the bank or is owed money by a third party, but is avoiding paying their CCF, we can process a request to the Court for a Third Party Debt Order (TPDO).

This is a two-stage process that starts with the Court freezing the Judgment Debtor from taking money out of their bank or building society account.

The second and final stage of the TPDO is when the Court orders the bank or the third party to pay the money they owed to the debtor directly to you, the Judgment Creditor instead.

No matter which enforcement method you choose, we will go through all your options and advise you as best as possible.