Enforcing a court order

[IAmOwedMoney]

If someone has not paid a court order for financial issues, what are the stages you go through to get payment?

If they are refusing to pay you can go back to court and ask them to enforce the order.

Which court, the one that made the order, which form do I fill in, do I need another hearing?

What did the order say, was it a 'pay x by y date' type order? Was it in the County Court, High Court, Magistrates Court or other? It varies from court to court and depends on the order.

You have a 50% chance of getting some sensible advice about procedure if you ring the court and ask the court staff. They are not allowed to make a suggestion about what to do but should be able to outline options (worked at County Court years ago). hth

County court order.

To pay a set amount each month.

It depends.

1.) For creditors financials issues you go to county court, fill out form N9A and the fee.

The judgement/enforcement will be done via paperwork unless the other side defends the case. The court will then list a hearing. If still no payment, you can apply for the court for a warrant of execution, attachment of earnings or in some cases a charge on a property if the other party has one (this is dependent on the amount outstanding).

Ancilliary matters - if you are referring to financial issues made under ancillary hearings I would ask for further information. Usually it just needs an application to the court to either enforce/vary the order. If you are trying to enforce something like spousal maintenance this just needs to go to court under ancillary hearings. However (and this is why I wanted some more information) you are enforcing the other side to pay a debt to a creditor there is an overlap between Family and Contract Law - sometimes the two conflict.

I know this might seem a bit confusing to you, but this is why I wanted much more information to give you specific advice for the procedures you will need to take.

The options about enforcing a judgement in the county court are here

There are further fees to be paid if you enforce a judgement which should be added to the amount owed, and there is no certain way of guaranteeing that you will get your money back.

Have you spoken to the other side? Are they likely to be reasonable? Is it a larger or smaller amount?

Sorry to keep with the questions but if you have a think about them then you may be able to work out the best way to get your money back. Good luck.

Just realised, county court order can mean a lot of things (it is a while since I was there). Was it a straight forward 'you owe a finite amount of money' or was it to do with family as ancillary relief awarded in the county court used to be enforced by the magistrates?

I hope I haven't muddied the waters too much. If you feel able to give more detail then it may help people more expert to give better advice.

Ancillary relief maintenance not been paid, they have applied to have it reduced, they are not paying in the mean time.