CCJ’s- County Court Judgements

A county court judgement (CCJ) is a way that a creditor can look to recover money for a debt that you owe. If you have a credit agreement that was taken out under The Consumer Credit Act, then a CCJ is not the starting point of the debt recovery process. First you must receive a letter of claim (which would potentially lead to a CCJ) but before that even happens you should have received a Notice of Default. Defaults are discussed here, and they are the starting point of the debt recovery process. You should be aware that you may still receive a County Court Judgement even if you’re on a debt management plan. A CCJ will also severely impact your ability to obtain credit in the future and it will remain on your credit reference file for 6 years.

Letter of Claims

If you receive a letter of claim then you will have 30 days to respond to it. Your creditor will ask you to fill out a financial statement detailing the amount you can afford to pay them. If they accept this, then court action may be avoided. It is important that you reply to this letter as failure to do so may mean that court action is taken against you and you will be ordered to pay back more than you can afford. You really should consider professional help at this stage and when you reply to the Letter of Claim, you should tell your creditor that you are getting debt advice. The advice you get can be free so there’s no reason not to get help. The last thing you should do is ignore the letter!

CCJ’s- Official Forms

Before you actually receive a County Court Judgement, you will receive forms in the post and this may well occur if your creditor does not agree with the amount you have stated you can afford to pay in the financial statement. It is usually Northampton County Court that issues the forms and the pack will contain various parts for you to complete. You will have 14 days to respond to this and should do so to avoid a CCJ being made that you cannot afford. The packs are normally printed on blue and white paper and will contain an N1 Claim Form, an N9 response pack comprising of an N9A admission, and a N9B defence and counter claim form.

Briefly, the N1 claim form should contain details of the debt you owe, the N9A is the form you would complete if you accepted the amount claimed, and the N9B is the form you would complete if you disputed some, or all of the amount claimed.

CCJ’s- The N9A Form

If you intend completing the N9A admission form then you should be aware that the form also asks for details of your financial circumstances. You can read my guide to calculating your debts here, but I would strongly advise that you get professional help with this form. You can find a video guide to completing the form and a general guide to County Court Judgements here. As a former gambler, it’s highly likely you have multiple debts and your creditors will work at different speeds to recover the money you owe. It is therefore reasonable to assume that if one of them is about to take court action against you, then other CCJ’s will follow, and this needs to be taken into account when specifying how much you can afford to pay.

CCJ’s- The N9B Form

The N9B form is used if you disagree with the amount the creditor is claiming. This could be because you agree you owe them something but not the amount they’re claiming. Or it could be that you disagree that you owe the money at all and it was someone else’s debt.

Another cause to dispute the claim is because the debt is too old. It may be that the creditor hasn’t been in contact with you for a number of years and then attempts to take court action against you. In many cases they cannot do this and there is a statute of limitations that applies, meaning that the debt is no longer enforceable and a County Court Judgement cannot be made. The amount of time a creditor gets will differ between England and Scotland. In England, the time limit is 6 years whereas in Scotland it’s 5 years.

Help For CCJ’s

Regardless of whether you’re completing a N9A or N9B form, it is a complicated process and you will definitely need professional help. I know I keep saying this throughout the gambling debt section, but you can get help with all your debt issues including CCJ’s from a debt management company. This is free if you choose a charity such as StepChange.