Can DRS help recover a CCJ?


It's great news when you've been awarded a County Court Judgment in your favour, it is a Civil Judgment followed by an order for payment of money, known as a Judgment Debt. Whilst this might "blacklist" an individual / business with credit reference agencies and make it more difficult to obtain credit in the future, the Debtor may not be forthcoming with payments and you could fail to receive the monies rightfully owed to you. This can become increasingly frustrating, time consuming and of course impact your personal / company’s cashflow.

This is where Enforcement Action comes in.


The good news is, DRS is here to lessen that frustration and free up your time.

There are a few factors to consider before enforcing the Judgment:

  • You must give the debtor an opportunity to pay the Judgment debt (usually a 14 day period as standard)
  • You should thoroughly check that the debtor has been served with the judgment and is aware of its existence and that the debtor has not appealed the judgment, applied to have it set aside and / or sought a stay of execution.
  • It is important to understand what the judgment debtor’s assets are, as enforcement would be a waste of time and costs if the debtor has no assets to pay the judgment order in any event


Thereafter, there are multiple ways this debt could be recovered, for example we can operate and have the involvement of the County Court Bailiffs or our High Court Enforcement Officers, likewise, we have several options to execute at our disposal.



Enforcement Officer

Some of the routes we can explore are the following:

  • Writ of Control – this action as is quite often the most cost effective approach to begin with, we execute the same through our High Court Enforcement Officers, who carry out any necessary risk assessments, make investigations on any assets present including vehicles, and will make multiple attendances accordingly in order to recover the outstanding debt.
  • Attachment of Earnings Order – where a debtor is working, this is often an appropriate method of enforcement. We only require the name and address of the debtor’s employer, and your debt is simply paid out of the debtor's salary by their employer.
  • Third Party Debt Order – where the debtor is stopped from taking money out of their bank account or building society and you are paid monies owed directly from the bank or building society.
  • Charging Order – if the debtor owns or has an interest in a property, it is possible for us to secure your judgment debt against the property, this will secure the debt and will accrue interest at the statuary 8% rate per annum
  • Bankruptcy – if you are owed more than £5k by an individual, you can apply to make them bankrupt, the judgment debtor's assets will be collected by a trustee during the bankruptcy process and distributed amongst all creditors according to priority under insolvency law and so it is important to identify all available assets.
  • Winding Up – if you are owed more than £750 by a company, you can apply for that debtor company to be wound up, usually leading to compulsory liquidation. If successful, the company assets are sold and any legal disputes are settled, the company collects money it’s owed and funds are paid to you and any other creditors.

    What Now?

    Whilst there is no guarantee that taking enforcement action will recover monies owed, we have a proven track record that our methods do work. If you have a Judgment Order or a Costs Order upon which payment has not been forthcoming, and you are unsure what to do next or are considering taking further action by letting DRS handle matters for you then get in touch with us.