Enforcement of Judgments

Once you have obtained a judgment, there are a number of different ways in which you can enforce it.

1. Higher Court Enforcement Officer/Bailiff
You can ask an Enforcement Officer in the High Court or a Bailiff in the County Court to attend at the debtor's house and seize any goods or vehicles owned by that debtor. Those goods or vehicles can then be sold at auction and the proceeds paid to you in settlement of your judgment debt.

2. Charging orders
If you know of a property owned by the debtor, you can put a charge on it securing your judgment. If the debtor still refuses to pay, you can go on to the next step and obtain an order that the property be sold to repay your judgment debt

3. Attachment of earnings
If your debtor is in regular full-time employment, you can apply for an order that the judgment be repaid by regular instalments from the debtor's salary. The court will decide the amount to be paid to you and the employer pays that sum to the court each month from the debtor's salary.

4. Freezing bank accounts
Technically called a third-party debt order, if you know a bank account in the debtor's name then you can ask the court to freeze that account and any sums in that account will then be paid to you in settlement of your judgment debt.

5. Oral examination
If you do not know what income or assets your debtor has, you can use this route to force him or her to attend at court and reveal his or her assets and income. Using this information you should be able to use one of the above methods to enforce payment of your judgment.

6 Bankruptcy/Insolvency proceedings
This is the most powerful method of enforcement. It can be very successful in securing payment of your judgment, but it is also the most expensive method of enforcement. It is also a way of pursuing debts in its own right if the debt is undisputed.