Removing a County Court Judgment

CCJ's can be issued against you with or sometimes without your knowledge. This information can depend on the circumstances of how the CCJ was issued.

CCJ Issued without your Knowledge

Some creditors will purposely issue claims against you at a previous address, or not take sufficient steps to confirm if you are still at that property, where you may be completely unaware of them.

In these circumstances, because you will be unaware of the claim, the court will enter a CCJ against you “in default” simply because you have not responded to the claim.

Many individuals will be unaware of these CCJs for months, or even years, and quite often will only realise when it comes to applying for a mortgage, loan, or anything else that relies on a credit rating.

A court must set aside a CCJ entered in default if the judgment was entered wrongly. There are specific rules that creditors have to follow when sending a Claim Form to you. If these rules weren’t followed correctly and the Claim Form was sent to an incorrect address, the Judgment may be set aside by the Court.

Pearson Solicitors understand the need to get this resolved quickly and efficiently. We have specialist legal advisers that work in this area of the law and have a 92% success rate. Call us on 0161 785 3500 to discuss how we can help you.

What can you do? - CCJ Removal Options Flowchart

If the CCJ was issued with your Knowledge

If you have received a CCJ, consider carefully whether you have a valid defence to the claim. If yes, you could apply to the court for an order to "set aside" the judgment.

But, to obtain that court order, you must act promptly (ideally within 30 days but in some cases the Court may allow up to 59 days).

If the Claim Form was sent to your last known address and you did not respond to the Claim Form, it is very unlikely that the Court will set the CCJ aside unless you:

• (a) have a real prospect of successfully defending the claim; or
• (b) it appears to the court that there is some other good reason why –
  • (i) the judgment should be set aside or varied; or
  • (ii) you should be allowed to defend the claim

If any of the above grounds are satisfied, the Court may set the Judgment aside.