County Court Or HCEO, Anyone Had Any Experience?

[Christopher Price]

Just need a bit of advice folks. A former employer, refused to pay me my last months pay earlier in the year and I ended up going to an Industrial Tribunal and winning against him.

Now this was back in May, he then appealed and after 4 months, I finally got a ruling that threw out the appeal. He then had a further 28 days to appeal the appeal, which has now passed and I spoke to appeals Court yesterday and he confirmed that no appeal had been lodged, so I have now effectively won my case.

Now it's not a huge amount of money (just over £2,200) but it would be nice to have it before Christmas. I find it strange that the Employment Tribunal don't enforce payment, but apparently it's down to me.

Now I have a choice of issuing either a County Court Judgement, (which I believe he can ignore) or go down the High Court Enforcement Officer route, but they then take a percentage of the award.

I just wondered if anyone had any experience of using either system, as I want to get this rolling tomorrow?

[another_clean_sheet]

I have not had personal experience. The question is how difficult he will be.
If he pays the monies due at the first stage you will be OK as the fee is only £90 However if he is difficult and you have to go through the next three stages which eventually leads to seizure of goods then that will wipe out the monies due to you.

[solarsailor]

Originally Posted by another_clean_sheet

I have not had personal experience. The question is how difficult he will be.
If he pays the monies due at the first stage you will be OK as the fee is only £90 However if he is difficult and you have to go through the next three stages which eventually leads to seizure of goods then that will wipe out the monies due to you.

To the best of my knowledge that's not strictly correct. The creditor has to pay a compliance fee of £75 +VAT (which is the aforementioned £90). All other fees (court, sherrif etc) are added to the amount initially owed and the debtor is responsible for paying those. If he coughs up then he's also liable for the initial £90 fee so you'll get that back as well. If he fails to pay then all you lose is the £90.

That's a very simplistic outline, so have a look at this which explains things in more detail.

http://thesheriffsoffice.com/high-co...ees-and-stages

[victorgte]

Small claims court route is cheap and simple to use. I used it to sue Sky TV and won. I had to use the process as part of my job some years ago too.
You already have another judgement to back your case so this route should be a formality. You won't get it by Christmas though.
Remedies you can apply for are:
1. Warrant of execution. No they don't hang him.
2. Attachment of earnings
3. Charging order on his house.

If I have missed anything I apologise as it's been a few years. As you go through the process your fees are part of your claim so you get all that back too. Court staff are helpful and will assist you filliing out the forms. Like I said it's not fast but it's a great way for us ordinary folk to get justice and in 30 years I lost only one claim. Good luck.

[Ps3000]

I took an individual motor trader to Small Claims over a duff gearbox many years ago. After a similar process of him stringing stuff out I won. I used the Local Court Service bailiffs to try and enforce the order, but he claimed to have nothing of value and they left him alone. I never got the money.

I imagine the route to take depends on who is involved. Big companies like SKy etc don't generally like having CCJs hanging around so will settle. Small time crooks and chancers don't care so are harder to pin down.

If this is a one-man band operation and he's already shown he doesn't care about doing the decent thing and paying people what they are due, I (sadly) think you may struggle - however if it's a business that needs to "keep its nose clean", they will want to avoid an outstanding CCJ.

I wish I'd known my chances of success before I started cos I probably wouldn't have bothered.

[Christopher Price]

Thanks for the replies so far, if it helps, it's a Ltd Company, so I don't think they can say that they have no money.

[Bluedaz]

Originally Posted by solarsailor

To the best of my knowledge that's not strictly correct. The creditor has to pay a compliance fee of £75 +VAT (which is the aforementioned £90). All other fees (court, sherrif etc) are added to the amount initially owed and the debtor is responsible for paying those. If he coughs up then he's also liable for the initial £90 fee so you'll get that back as well. If he fails to pay then all you lose is the £90.

That's a very simplistic outline, so have a look at this which explains things in more detail.

http://thesheriffsoffice.com/high-co...ees-and-stages

your info is bang on that's how it works.

[zeek]

Originally Posted by Christopher Price

Now I have a choice of issuing either a County Court Judgement, (which I believe he can ignore) or go down the High Court Enforcement Officer route, but they then take a percentage of the award.

I just wondered if anyone had any experience of using either system, as I want to get this rolling tomorrow?

Have you contacted your former employer to chase payment? You can start by assuming non-payment is an oversight and politely but firmly ask for prompt payment to avoid enforcement.

[Christopher Price]

I've been doing some more research and I've found that as from April of this year (mine was May) there is now an on-line enforcement form I can complete, which gives them 28 days to pay and if they don't, they can be fined up to £5,000, so I may now use this route. But thanks to everyone that has posted replies.

[Greeners]

From a75 owner friend of mine who doesn't post

He needs to go through the high court enforcement. Write the company a letter giving 7 days to pay and warn them you will go to the high court. You pay a set fee which will be passed on to the company so you don't lose. Only issue if they nose dive the company he will lose his £60 fee