It’s that time of year again and the latest figures concerning County Court Judgments (CCJs) have been released by The Registry Trust. The Registry Trust is in charge of recording and publishing County Court Judgments from across the UK and Ireland.

The figures show a continued increase in Judgments against consumers, with almost 306,000 CCJs entered in the first 3 months of 2018! This has been a long running trend, with the number of Judgments steadily rising from around 150,000 in the same period 13 years ago. The increase in the last 12 months alone stands at 2%!

The Registry Trust also releases the details of CCJs secured against businesses. These figures had been falling for a number of years, in contrast to the Judgments against individual consumers. However, the current figures show a change and a 7% increase over the last 12 months.

Interestingly, the Registry Trust notes that this years’ figures have been affected by a large amount of Judgments entered against EasyJet in April 2018. These relate, one assumes, to flight delay or flight cancellation compensation payments that have not been paid to passengers.

The figures in the High Court are much smaller, with only 44 judgments being entered against consumers, and 20 against businesses in the same 3 month period. This is a small increase on the 2017 figures. Iain Blundell, Solicitor leading our Debt Recovery department, comments:

“The figures are not unexpected at all, representing a continued increase that has been taking place for many years. The Judgments against consumers have reached a new peak, but there is no sign that this is going to slow down any time soon!”

“The Government has existing proposals to prevent fraudulent Judgments being entered, with plans to make it easier to oppose or cancel CCJs which were entered without the debtor being aware. Proposals also include protection when mail is sent to an old address, but it is unclear how this will distinguish between those debtors who are intentionally avoiding debts, and those who are ‘innocent’ consumers.”

“The recent figures do highlight an interesting point in relation to airline delay or flight cancellation compensation payments. Again, this is not a huge surprise, as there has been recent bad press concerning certain airlines not paying compensation on time and ignoring CCJs when entered. I think it is very interesting that the Registry Trust feels that these numbers are significant enough to skew the overall figures and warranted specific mention!

” At Curtis Law, we are happy to assist clients dealing with debt and CCJs.

• • Has someone failed to pay you, perhaps despite repeated promises to do so?
• • Does your business have a problem with late payers, or bad debts?
• • Has someone issued a County Court claim against you for an alleged unpaid debt?

Our expert team at Curtis Law are on hand to assist with all of these queries. Please call for an initial no obligation chat on 01254 297130.