What should you do if you receive a county court judgment (CCJ)? Fiona Gaskell of Clough & Willis explains what a county court judgment is and what the effects of a judgment being registered are.

What is a county court judgment (CCJ)?

You may get a county court judgment (CCJ) (or high court judgment) if someone takes court action against you (saying you owe them money) and you do not respond.

You must respond to the court claim by the date on the email or letter you receive. The judgment will come in the post and will explain:

• how much you owe
• how to pay (in full or in instalments)
• the deadline for paying
• who to pay

If you get a judgment, this means that the court has formally decided that you owe the money.

Which judgments are not registered?

Historically, it was only judgments made in the county court which were a matter of public record as they were registered in the Registry of County Court Judgments. However, since 2006 all county court and high court judgments can be registered in the Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines unless they are exempt from registration. Judgments exempt from registration include:

• Judgments obtained in family proceedings in the Administrative Court and the Technology and Construction Court are exempt under Regulation 9 of The Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines Regulations 2005 (“the 2005 Regulations”).
• Judgments which have been contested are generally exempt from registration unless there is an order or application for payment by instalments, or the judgment creditor (the person(s) owed money) starts to enforce the order, so a judgment following a trial is not registered automatically simply because a judgment has been obtained. 
• Judgments which are appealed are also exempt pending the outcome of the appeal and orders for payment of money which arise from a claim for the recovery of land are generally exempt from registration until the judgment creditor, usually the claimant, starts to enforce the judgment.
• If the parties enter into something called a ‘Tomlin Order’ it is usually the case that any requirement for the payment of a money sum will be contained in the schedule to the order and will not trigger registration.

What details are included in a registered judgment?

The courts send details of eligible judgments for registration to Registry Trust Limited, which maintains the Register of Judgments. Details on judgments include:

• the full name of the judgment debtor (the person who owes money)
• the judgment debtor’s address
• the judgment debtor’s date of birth (if known)
• the date of the judgment debt
• the amount of the judgment debt
• the court’s name
• the claim number

What are the effects of a judgment being registered?

Records of judgments are kept for 6 years unless you pay the full amount within a month.

The Registry of Judgments is routinely searched by credit reference agencies and financial institutions. They do so in order to keep their records up to date and to enable them to take the information into consideration if they are approached by the judgment debtor for credit.

This means that a registered judgment will affect an individual’s credit rating. In certain cases, it may also affect an individual’s employment prospects.

What happens if you pay a judgment which can be registered?

If the judgment debt is paid in full within one calendar month of the judgment date, the entry at the Register of Judgments can be cancelled and removed from the Registry and the judgment debtor can apply for a certificate of cancellation. A certificate can also be obtained if a judgment is set aside.

If a judgment is paid in full, but more than one month after the judgment date, the judgment can be marked on the Register as satisfied. However, it will remain on the Register for six years from the date of judgment.

It is important to note that even after the six-year period, although the judgment may drop off the Register, the judgment itself does not simply disappear and can still be enforced by the judgment creditor.

Can a judgment debt be cancelled or removed from the register?

A judgment debt can only be cancelled if it has been satisfied, set aside or reversed, and this will require the court to send a request to the Register to cancel the entry.

If the judgment has been paid in full within one month then you should write to the court to say that you have paid, and you will need to send proof of payment. Usually this will require a signed statement from the person or business who had the benefit of the judgment. If you are paying after one month, again you will need to write to the court to say that you have paid and will need proof of payment from the person or business that you owed the money to.

You can apply for a certificate of cancellation if the debt was paid within one month, or a certificate of satisfaction if you paid after one month. You need to fill in the appropriate form and pay the court fee to the court that dealt with the matter.

If you cannot get proof of payment from the person or business that you owed the money to, you can still apply to the court. You should send whatever evidence you have to show that you have made the payment, such as a copy of your bank statement, and the court will write to the creditor. If they do not respond within 30 days the court may rely upon your evidence to make a decision, so if you make a payment it’s essential you do so in such a way that there is a record of what you have paid and when.

Can I apply to change the payment terms of a judgment?

You can approach the judgment creditor to agree to change the amount that you pay each week or each month, but to avoid any problems in the future about whether or not that was agreed, it’s probably better to make an application to the court by filling in an application to vary the order.

You will have to pay a court fee and you will need to give details of your income, your outgoings and what you can realistically afford to pay. This information will be sent to the judgment creditor who can either accept your proposal or reject it. If they reject it, it will still be considered by the court who may accept your offer.

What if you have been threatened with bailiffs?

If you have been threatened with bailiffs, you will need to apply to the court to suspend a warrant and you should do this by filling in an application form and again setting out details of your financial circumstances and how much you can pay.

What if you have other judgments or debts?

If you have other judgments, you can arrange to pay all your debts to the court in a single weekly or monthly payment.

Provided the total amount of your debts is less than £5,000, you can make an application to the court for an administration order. This will stop creditors from enforcing judgments by sending bailiffs to your home but it’s important that you keep up with payments and if you need to change the amount that you pay, you need to contact the court and give them further information about your financial circumstances.

Can you apply to set the judgment aside?

Claim form error

You can set the judgment aside if the court decides that the judgment was entered in error, for example if the judgment debtor did not receive a copy of the paper work from the court and was therefore unable to deal with the claim form and file a defence to the claim. This may occur when the claim form has been sent to an old address or when the address on the claim form is incorrect because a mistake has been made about the number of the house or the post code.

Debtor unable to receive judgment

It may also be the case that the debtor has not received the paperwork because they have been working away or have been ill in hospital and no one has been checking post on their behalf. If the failure to receive the claim form is as a result of an error or mistake on the part of the judgment creditor then the court is likely to set the judgment aside. This effectively gives the judgment debtor a second chance to defend the proceedings, or to choose to pay the amount claimed.

Defending the claim

Where the judgment creditor has served the judgment debtor correctly and the judgment debtor has simply not dealt with correspondence, the judgment debtor will need to demonstrate to the court that they have a real prospect of successfully defending the claim, or that it appears to the court that there is some other good reason why the judgment should be set aside or varied, or the defendant should be allowed to defend the claim.

In each case the court will have regard to whether the person seeking to set aside the judgment has made the application promptly. This is a recurring problem because it is sometimes the case that years after a judgment has been registered a judgment debtor wishes to apply for credit, or obtain a mortgage, and cannot do so because of the existence of the registered judgment. The courts may well be reluctant in such circumstances to consider an application to set aside a judgment which is years old.

Paying the debt

There have been some situations in which judgments entered in default of a defence have been set aside by consent in return for an immediate payment of the undisputed debt simply to remove the judgment debt from the Register. This is something which the courts are very reluctant to do and may view such an application as an artificial means of having a judgment removed from the Register.

Such an application may succeed if the judgment debtor can persuade the court that if they had known about the claim at the time they would have dealt with it and that they would have paid it off rather than suffer the consequences or a registered judgment against them. However, it should be noted that the circumstances where the court will consider such an application are very limited.

Summary

If you find out that you have a judgment registered against you it is important that you do something immediately and you should also seek professional advice.

About the author

Fiona Gaskell is a Partner and Dispute Resolution Solicitor at Clough & Willis, who specialises in property disputes and insolvency, acting for private individuals, insolvent businesses and trustees, liquidators and administrators.

See also

What to do if you receive a winding up petition from HMRC

What restrictions are there during bankruptcy?

How can a Time to Pay Arrangement help with tax bills?

What is an administration order?

Find out more

Respond to a court claim for money (GOV.UK)

Registry Trust Limited (ROJOF)

The Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines Regulations 2005 (Legislation)

Apply for a certificate to show you've paid a court order (GOV.UK)

Apply to suspend a warrant or vary payments made by a court order (GOV.UK)

Image: Getty Images

Publication date: 10 May 2021

Any opinion expressed in this article is that of the author and the author alone, and does not necessarily represent that of The Gazette.