The cost of instructing a bailiff to enforce a judgment debt has risen to a fixed fee of £100, as opposed to the previous scaled charge of either £35 or £55 dependant on the debt value. The cost of seeking to deduct money from a debtor’s wages also increases from £65 to £100 and the cost of securing a debt against property rises from £55 also to £100.

This comes at a time when many businesses are under pressure to meet their own financial obligations and need to be able to rely upon the civil justice system to provide them with affordable access to justice.

These increases are going to be especially painful to small businesses that are already facing great difficulty in getting paid and, in turn, making payments to their own suppliers. The enforcement of low value judgments in the County Court is increasingly uneconomical, and businesses need to look at innovative strategies to help maintain their debt recovery levels.