Understanding judgments & fines

CCJs and county courts

• CCJs: What are they?
• CCJs and credit: mortgages, loans and credit cards
• County court judgment records: How long CCJs stay on record
• Certificate of satisfaction - Satisfied vs unsatisfied CCJs
• Removing a CCJ
• Set aside a judgment
• Default judgments
• Enforcing judgments
• County courts: How they work
• County court judgment forms

County court judgments: The six year limit

Details of county court judgments remain on the register for six years from the date of judgment, unless the judgment is set aside, or the amount is paid in full within one month (see below).

Despite the promise of some credit repair agencies, there are no other ways to remove CCJs from the records.

Removing judgments: paying within a month

If you pay your county court judgment in full within one month of the judgment date, it will be removed from the register.

You may have to tell the court this yourself – the person you owed money to may not have done so.

Step by step guide to removing judgments

Here’s what to do if you paid within a month

• Search the register First, search the register to see what is recorded against you. If a county court judgment is shown, and you paid in full within a month, you can apply to have the judgment removed.
• Contact the court This will be the court where your case was last dealt with. There is a form to fill out, and you’ll need to know the claim number.
• Get confirmation You’ll also need written confirmation from the person you owed the money to (so get a receipt). If you can’t get a confirmation from the person you owed money to, the court will write to them for you.
• Pay a small fee And there is a fee to pay – the court will tell you this.

Satisfying a county court judgment

There is a similar procedure to getting a judgment marked as satisfied if you pay in full after a month. See ‘Certificate of satisfaction’ for more details.

In this case, the county court judgment stays on the register, but anybody checking it will see it is marked as satisfied.

Unpaid county court judgments are shown as unsatisfied.

Judgment vs judgement

The correct spelling of county court judgment is without the ‘e’ in judgment – it’s not spelt as county court judgement.