What is a County Court Judgment?

A County Court Judgment, or a CCJ, is an order made against you by a County Court in England & Wales to repay a debt. Before the judge decides how to rule, the claimant (the creditor you owe money to) has to prove that the defendant (you) owes them money.

What’s the process for getting a County Court Judgement?

The CCJ process starts when you’re issued a County Court claim form (N1).

Once you’ve got this, you’ll have at least 14 days from the start of the legal proceedings to take action. The proceedings will start two days after you receive the claim form (this allows an extra two days for postage time). This means you’ll have 14 days from the date of the postmark on the letter to respond to the claim form. You’ll have 19 days to respond if your claim form has been sent from the court’s business centre.

What do I do once I get the County Court claim form?

If you receive a claim form, there’s more than one way to respond; how you choose to do so will depend on both your feelings about the ruling and whether or not you feel you owe the debt.

If you want to dispute the debt…

You need to file a defence if you think the creditor has made a mistake, don’t believe you owe the money or have already paid what you owe. You will need to complete form N9B to counterclaim if you have any claims against the creditor.

If you want to admit you owe the debt…

You need to complete an N9A Admission form and Income and Expenditure form and send it to your creditor. By sending this, you’re admitting you owe all the debt and offering to repay what you owe.

If you dispute the jurisdiction or are unable to file a defence within two weeks…

You must file an Acknowledgment of Service to the County Court to dispute the debt if you can’t file a defence within the two weeks allowed. Once you’ve submitted this, you’ll have 28 days to file your defence. If you’re asking for an additional 14 days to file your claim, you need to apply for this within the first 14 days.

You’ll need to file an Acknowledgement of Service to dispute the Country Court’s jurisdiction. After you’ve responded, you’ll have to wait for the County Court to make its judgment.

What do I do after the County Court has made its judgment?

The County Court will issue an order detailing how much you need to repay (unless they’ve upheld any debts you’ve disputed). There are three types of order:

Judgment In Acceptance

A Judgment In Acceptance means that your creditor has accepted the offer you made on your claim form. Your creditor will notify the judge that they’ve accepted it.

Judgment In Default

You may get a Judgment In Default if you haven’t responded to the claim form within 14 days. If this happens, the County Court will set the payment amount, which could be an unaffordable monthly amount or request you to repay the whole balance immediately.

Judgment After Determination

This judgment will happen if your creditor rejects the payment offer you made on your claim form. If this happens, the County Court will set a payment after reviewing your income and expenditure.

Will the judgment be on my credit file?

If you repay the full balance within 30 days, the CCJ won’t be registered on your credit file.

If you’re unable to repay the total balance, it will be registered on your credit file via the Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines if you can’t repay the full balance within 30 days of the CCJ being issued. The CCJ will show on your credit file for six years.

What happens if the payments aren’t affordable?

If you feel that the payments set by the County Court aren’t affordable, you’ll need to send an N245 form, up-to-date income and expenditure and a list of all your unsecured debts to the County Court that issued the CCJ. It costs £14 to apply for this.

You can apply to the court to vary your payments if you’ve received a Judgment After Determination or if there has been a court hearing to decide your payment. To do this, you’ll need to send an N244 form, up-to-date income and expenditure and a list of all your unsecured debts to the County Court that issued the CCJ. It costs £275 to apply for this.

Your creditor will consider the offer and let the County Court know if they accept or reject it.

If they accept the offer, the County Court will send you details of the agreement and your new payment plan.

If they reject the offer, the County Court will use the information you provided and your N245 form to determine what you should pay. If you still feel this is unaffordable, you have 14 days to challenge the Couty Court’s judgment. This will then go to court again for a redetermination.

Who do I make my CCJ payments to?

You’ll need to make your payment(s) directly to your creditor or collection agent, not through the court.

What if I don’t make my payments?

If you don’t make your payment(s) as detailed in the order, your creditor can apply to the court for enforcement action.

This could result in an Attachment of Earnings order, a Charging Order (securing the debt on your property) on your property if you own it, an order for sale (if you already have a Charging Order), or a visit from an enforcement agent (bailiff).

Attachment of Earnings (AOE)

The County Court can issue an Attachment of Earnings if you don’t make your agreed payments. If this happens, the County Court can order the required payments to be taken directly from your monthly salary.

The court can order for this to happen if:

• You’re behind with your repayments.
• You’re an employee of a company (not self-employed or on benefits).
• You owe your creditor more than £50 on the CCJ.

The court will send you form N56 (Replying to an Attachment of Earnings Order) if your creditor applies to the court for an AOE. You must complete this form and return it to the court as soon as possible.

In Section 10 of the form, you can ask the court to suspend the order, but you must give them a valid reason for this – e.g. you may lose your job or promotion prospects if your employer finds out you are in debt.

Charging Order

Your creditor can apply for a charging order to secure the debt against your home if they have already issued you a CCJ (even if you haven’t defaulted on the CCJ) and you own (or part-own) a property.

The application for a charging order is in two stages:  

Stage 1: Interim Charge

The first stage of the application is a warning from your creditor to inform you that they intend to secure the debt against your property if you don’t repay it.

If you wish to challenge the charging order, you must write to the court seven days before the hearing to file an objection.

Stage 2: Final Charge

The second stage is a hearing in court. It’s really important that you attend this hearing and put your case forward. The District Judge will use the evidence provided at the interim stage to decide whether to grant the charge.

If the District Judge approves the charging order, your unsecured debt will now be secured against your property.

If you’d like further help, please get in touch with our Advice Team on 0333 554 1378.