CCJ expired and am now being issued an attachment of earnings order

Jaxson

Hi, I was wondering if anyone knows about how CCJ's can be enforced... over 7 years ago I had a break up with my partner and it turned out he had incurred a debt of £6000 for a credit card in my name I didn't know about. Back then I chose to bury my head in the sand & ignore it as I had no way of paying this. I didn't acknowledge any debt or make contact with anyone, however was issued a CCJ which has just dropped off my credit file after 6 years. This remained unsettled as although it was in my name, I didn't use this money so thought it can just drop off my credit file in due course.

Today I have received an attachment of earnings order asking me to either pay Mortimer Clarke Solicitors £6,407 or fill in the form and send it to the County Court for payment to be taken from my work.

Are they able to do this once the CCJ has dropped off (They keep sending post to my old address which I haven't lived at in 4years so they clearly don't know if I'm receiving letters or know my work details etc) I wonder if the form is genuine or a scare tactic to get to me contact them or whether the County Court will give me another CCJ for the old one not being paid. I was told that after 6 years they can't chase for payment, is this the case?

Any help would be much appreciated...

rizla_king

They can't give you another CCJ. After 6 years they can still chase but should seek permission from the court to enforce it like this. The court will normally refuse unless there is a good reason why they didn't try before now. Mortimer Clarke are sneeky bs'tards so I suspect they put the application in without bringing how old it is to the courts attention. May be a way to oppose the application still, but may be too complicated for here, so I would suggest asking on the legalbeagles and CAG legal forums.

Jaxson

I'll try that,thanks very much

Jaxson

Have asked on legalbeagles & CAG but so far no replies, am going to ring stepchange this afternoon and see what they say but if anyone knows anything that'd be great.

fermi

Also ask National Debtline. Freephone 0808 808 4000. They generally seem a bit more clued up on these things than stepchange.

fatbelly

This is the information given to the creditor. After the creditor makes an application for an AoE...

The court will tell the defendant to either:
• pay all the money owed; or
• fill in a form giving information about his or her employment, income and outgoings (‘statement of means’). I suspect this is what you have

What if the defendant does not reply?
If the defendant does not send back the form, the court will try to contact the defendant and get a ‘statement of means’.
A bailiff will serve an order telling the defendant to fill in a statement of means. If the defendant still does not return the form but the judge thinks the defendant knew about the attachment of earnings application, the judge may issue a warrant to arrest the defendant.
The bailiff will arrest the defendant and may bring him or her to court to fill in a statement of means.
If after six to eight weeks you have not heard anything from the court, you should ring the office where you sent your form to see what has happened.

What does the court do with the statement of means?

A court officer will look at the information given on the defendant’s statement of means and decide how much the defendant can afford to pay.
The officer will take into account how much the defendant needs to live on for food, rent or mortgage and essentials and to pay regular bills, such as electricity. This is called the ‘protected earnings rate’. If the defendant earns more than the protected earnings rate, an order will be made.
If the defendant is on a low wage, it may not be possible to make an attachment of earnings order.
The order will be sent to the defendant’s employer saying how much to take and when to take it. The order will be sent by the Centralised Attachment of Earnings Payment System (CAPS) in Northampton, which will be responsible for collecting payments. You will be sent a copy of the order.
The defendant can ask for the order to be suspended if he or she does not want the court to contact his or her employer. If the court agrees, they will tell the defendant to make regular payments direct to you.
If the defendant has a suspended order and does not pay, or pays and then stops, you can use form N446 Request for re-issue of enforcement or an order to obtain information from judgment debtor. to ask the court to send the order to the employer. There is no fee for this and you can get the form free from any county court, or online from hmctsformfinder

National_Debtline

Hello there.

The rules of court suggest that 6 years is plenty long enough for a creditor to enforce their county court judgment. Rizla King sums the situation up perfectly. The general rule is that a court would be reluctant to allow enforcement after six years unless there are exceptional circumstances and that it would be 'just' to allow it. The creditor would need to explain the reasons for the delay and why they should allow your case to be taken out of the general rule. The court would need to consider any prejudice to you.

If you wish to research some case law, here are a number that could be useful.

Duer v Frazer [2001] - The application for high court bailiff enforcement was rejected due to length of time.
Patel v Singh [2002] - The application for high court bailiff enforcement was also rejected due to length of time.

But be aware:

The Society of Lloyd's v Longtin [2005] - The application for bailiff action was allowed - as the creditor had been trying to enforce the debt for a number of years previously.

Sadly, I cannot tell you whether or not you will succeed, but I do hope you find this information useful.

Best wishes,

David @ NDL.