Court Proceedings and Enforcement Options

When Can You Take Court Action?

When your Demand Letter has expired take Court action and claim Costs, Interest and Compensation (if applicable) in addition to your debt.

If your debt is subject to English legal jurisdiction, we will prepare and issue a Court Claim to recover all that is due to you from the debtor.

If the debt is subject to Scottish, Irish or any international jurisdiction we can also assist you and will need to discuss the account with you.

Why Take Court Action?

In most situations we expect to obtain payment as part of our Pre-Litigation Collections or Demand Letter Services. However sometimes Debtors do not pay and Court action is necessary.

Are there any other options?

If the Debt is over £750 then we can advise you about taking more extreme debt recovery action, for example issuing Winding Up or Bankruptcy Petitions.

Advantages of issuing a Court Claim

By issuing a Court Claim against the Debtor, the Court is used to help you recover the debt from the debtor and other Court enforcement procedures may be used:

• Formality of Court proceedings
• Strict Court timetable is set for Debtor to respond
• Legal costs become recoverable from the Debtor
• Interest is added to the your claim
• Further interest is claimable until Judgment
• Late Payment Compensation may be claimed (if applicable)
• Other costs and expenses may be claimed under your contract
• CCJ (County Court Judgment ) is registered against the debtor if not paid
• Court enforcement procedures available to enforce payment

Enforcement Action

When you obtain a Judgment it can be enforced against the Debtor.

Enforcement Options include:

Warrant/Writ of Execution – Bailiff/Sheriff seizure, removal and sale of your Debtor’s goods is usually the first option taken by creditors. However we strongly recommend that other options are considered if information is available.

Third Party Debt Order (“TPDO”) – If a debt is owed to your debtor (e.g. a bank account in credit or a trade creditor) the TPDO is an Order from the Court ordering that the debt is paid to you instead.

Attachment of Earnings – Where an individual Debtor in permanent employment has an Order made requiring the employer to make monthly deductions from the debtor's earnings and to pay them into Court so that a proportion of the debtor's earnings are paid to pay the judgment.

Charging Order - If the Debtor owns or has an interest in property, application is made to the Court to impose a Charge (Charging Order) on the property. As holders of a Charging Order the Creditor becomes a secured creditor, subject to any prior charges which may be registered against the Property.

Order to attend for Questioning - The Debtor (or Company’s Director) is ordered to attend Court to provide information about the debtor’s financial affairs and means to pay the debt, the answers enable a creditor decide on the most suitable enforcement to take.

Bankruptcy Petition - As a judgment Creditor you may issue a Statutory Demand against an individual Debtor. Failure by the Debtor to deal with this enables you to present a Bankruptcy Petition. Alternatively this may be used as a separate strategy instead of a Summons or Writ.

Winding Up Petition –  An effective option to take for recovery of larger debts due from companies or LLP’s. As an alternative to the issue Court proceedings or where

Previous recovery attempts fail you may petition the Court for the Winding Up of your Debtor Company. This decision should be considered by you at an early stage

According to the amount owed, the background and trading position of the debtor.