To think there should be tough punishments for people who ignore county court judgements

[ReallyTired]

My brother is an electrician. He did thousand of pounds of work on customer's house. The woman has not paid him a penny. He spent a lot of money taking her to court and won his court case. He is finding next to impossible to enforce the court ruling as he cannot afford the cost of baliefs. He is close to bankrupty himself.

I feel there should be tougher penalties for people who ignore county court judgements. There is no excuse, even if you are benefits and have kids. You should at least make an effort to pay something. Or they should learn to live within their means and not pay for housing improvements they can't afford.

Prehaps if people who ignored county court judgments were sent to jail then the court system would be fairer.

People get sent to jail for shoplifting and why is refusing to pay an honest tradesman any different.

I disagree Judges are perfectly capable of making decisions and giving people the opportunity to pay as the person in the OP's case had but decided to not comply.
Why should a hard working man find himself in financial difficulty because somebody makes a conscience choice to steal from him ?
As for the PND you are right I am ignorant of how AD's work, I have had three children and never had it despite extremely difficult circumstances in all three cases, am I lucky or do I just get on with it, who knows ?

But it would have been ok if you'd topped yourself FAQ - your kids would be sent to the workhouse and you wouldn't be a drain on society anymore.

god just a few months ago when I was at my lowest, I just about managed to feed my DS's and "look after" them, but if it wasn't for some extremely good friends I would have been living in a house not dis-similar to those that you see on "How Clean is Your House" - there wouldn't have been any chance of me managing to get motivated to get up and go to work as well!

I am going to have to stop posting because it would seem you people cannot actually read what is written on the screen and just make up replies that fit your own arguments - how odd ?

oh I had it p*ss easy after both DS1 and DS2's births - nothing in my life that would have "indicated" that I would get PND.

TSD - sorry that touches a bit close to the core, I know you're being sarcastic, but it's not so many months since I was hospital after taking on OD

you are extremely lucky

so it is a shame that depsite your own difficult circumstances you are completely lacking in empathy

But Katie it doesn't work like that. In my dh's case (just to use an easy example) he just didn't receive any of the correspondence. In your new world order the first thing he would've known about it would be the police turning up to arrest him and throw him in the clanger! So what then - he has to appeal? And what if his appeal is unsuccessful? He just has to stay in prison, because a letter didn't get delivered?

And - presumably - you'd have me and ds in there with him, because I don't earn enough to support us financially!

Can you not see how your system is unworkable?

I work in finance (and we have an internal collections and legal department) and a lot of the things said here are totally wrong and misleading... I think that people should be very careful about what they say if they do not know the facts, around court procedures and the effects of non payment of debt. As this could cause worry and stress for someone in debt if the advise is incorrect.

For starters no one has a right to enter your property without a court order and a CCJ is not a court order. The CCJ is only the starting point... Also if it did get to this no Bailiff is aloud to take any property that does not belong to the debtor this includes families possessions or goods on HP, if this did happen it would be dealt with severely by the courts.

You could not make someone bankrupt just because they didn?t pay a ccj. I have seen CCJs for £50 before, come companies load them regardless of value. To make someone bankrupt you need to prove that they have no forcible way of paying the debt.

To ensure you brother gets his money I would suggest going back to crt and enforcing the CCJ. There are 6 (I think) ways he can do this.

Oh FAQ - i'm sorry. I tend to be too flippant about things like this - my coping mechanism I guess.

Sorry.

it's ok -thought I'd just mention it - as otherwise I'll be going back to old ways bottling things up - only way I've come bouncing back up again is by being honest about my feelings (still got a long way to go - but it's easier online when I don't have to look the person in the face)

Wow, Katie, you're so ignorant and lacking in compassion I thought for a second there that you were American.

After all, where else is the mentality that work is a cure all for all ills left to fuck up an entire society?

"Arbeit macht frei."

Now where have I seen that written??

KatyDD your comments about PND shock me. I am lucky I had a touch of the baby blues with dd but nothing out of the ordinary. However my mum has battled with depression all her life and is still on AD at the age of 60. As you say you know nothing about it so you should not comment on it (and certainly not belittle it). ?am I lucky or do I just get on with it, who knows ?how sarcastic and derogatory.

Insidious as cancer, that fascism, eh, SD?!

Oh, Katie, I know you're probably away working so may be ignorant of SD's comment, but it means 'Work Makes Freedom'. You can still see it in iron, too! As you enter the gates of former Nazi concentration camps.

theSuburbanDryad - are you actually reading what I wrote ?
Did your DH go to court, agree a payment plan and then refuse to adhere to it ?
If so then yes I am talking about him, if not then you can continue with your normal existance.
I too have worked in collections and it would make all of you boil if you knew how much debt avoidance costs you the tax payers and users of banking facilities because you don't think the losses come out of the shareholders profits do you ?

KatieDD - but you're not just directing your criticism at that small minority who do that - you had a go at Abstract Mouse - when she had a perfectly legitamate reason for hers.

Katie - as far as the courts were concerned, dh had completely ignored the letters telling him to pay! So as far as they were concerned, he was unwilling to pay - hence the CCJ! How would you differentiate from those who made a genuine mistake and those who were deliberately ignoring the letters from their debtors and the court?

ach, going all educated on me, SD! 'When I hear the world culture I reach for my Browning.'

You're talking to a brick wall, SD.

Some folks on here just won't be happy till we bring back the workhouses.

Well no you see, we're back to the reading issue again, I said "did he GO to court and REFUSE to pay"

"Did your DH go to court, agree a payment plan and then refuse to adhere to it ?" Again you have it wrong. A court does not agree a payment plan when issuing a CCJ. Not all parties are always there for starters. A CCJ is where the courts legally acknowledge that there is a debt owed, not produce a payment plan.

he never went to court because he didn't know it was going on.

he didn't pay because he didn't know he had it!

in the eyes of the law, he's as bad as someone who deliberately ignored it, Katie, and therefore, according to you, deserves to spend time in prison.

ffs.

To produce a payment plan you need to go back to court and enforce the CCJ.