If you are in debt, there are different steps that can be taken to force you to pay back what you owe and one of these is a County Court Judgement (CCJ). A County Court Judgement (CCJ) is a court order that can be issued by the courts in England, Wales and Northern Island. The purpose of a County Court Judgement (CCJ) is a way of forcing you to repay the money that you owe, which if you fail to do so it can have many consequences. A County Court Judgement (CCJ) happens when your creditor which is the people you owe money to send an application to the courts stating the reasons as to why they believe that a County Court Judgement (CCJ) is necessary for your situation. If the court agrees then you will be issued with a letter of warning first, this will allow you to take immediate action before you get full legal action taken towards you. However, if you fail to comply then a County Court Judgement (CCJ) is issued whereby you will be required to pay back the money you owe. A County Court Judgement (CCJ) is provided to you in a letter form which will outline that you have a County Court Judgement (CCJ) against you, it will provide you with steps on how to respond to the County Court Judgement (CCJ) and what actions the court can take if you fail to respond to the County Court Judgement (CCJ) within a certain period of time. If you are not sure if you have a County Court Judgement (CCJ) but suspect that you do you can always find out by looking at the Register of Judgements, Orders and Fines. If you do find that you have a County Court Judgement (CCJ) against you then the register will provide information including:
- The date of the judgement made against you
- The amount of money that you owe
- The name of the court that has issued the judgement against you.
The register will not state who has taken the County Court Judgement (CCJ) against you, so this will be something that you can follow up on and request further information from the court regarding the creditor involved. They will provide the information that they have and will tell you what the County Court Judgement (CCJ) is for. Once you receive a County Court Judgement (CCJ) you will then have different options in terms of repaying the money that you owe. You are able to pay back the full amount immediately, pay in instalments, dispute the claim completely or claim against the creditor. If you pay back the full amount within one month then the County Court Judgement (CCJ) will not be recorded on the Register of Judgements, Orders and Fines. If you do not pay within the month but still pay just after, your claim will be noted as ‘satisfied’ and you credit rating will not be affected. However, if you fail to pay after the month then you will be on the Register of Judgements, Orders and Fines for 6 years.