Judgment Obtained - Next step

[lozza]

Just wondering if someone can give me some advice/direction

I have obtained a judgement against a company (ltd but one man band) but have not recieved payment.

My next step was to enforce the judgment so I served an order to obtain information from a judgment debtor, to find out the companies financial standing so that i could decided on the enforcement route.

The director of the company has apparently moved out of his personal residence (the bailif tried to serve the order but was told defendant left the address at the end of January. Although the address is still listed with companies house as of today), I believe he may now be living in the company premises (he has done this before).

I can re-serve the order on the company premises, but i'm wondering if i should go straight for a warrant or if i can apply to wind the company up.

I really don't want to let this drop and as such want to do everything that i legally can to cause the company/director as much hassle and costs as possible.

Any help would be appreciated


Back ground: Small Ltd Company Sacks me while Pregnant, case goes to tribunal, settlement made on the morning of tribunal, settlement due to be paid in monthly installments, company defults on final installment (you'd think they just pay to get it over with!) no payment or correspondance from the company since.

 

[lozza]

I'm not sure about payment defaulters in the case of an Industrial Tribunal judgement. But the defendant's asset assessment as part of judgement enforcement that you mention is either associated with the tribunal or you've taken out a County Court Small Claims Division fixed or default summons, possibly won it and have paid the not-too-useful bailiffs to pay the chump a visit only for them to report to you via the court registrar that the said chump claimed that he didn't have a bean, everything was in his wife's name or whatever etcetera etcetera etcetera, and the bailiffs charged you for a non-result together with the usual weeks or months that all this horse**** usually entails.

In the case of county court small claims, most scumbags know that it's a fairly toothless system and usually play along with it whilst avoiding at all costs paying any money. Unless you can corner them fair and square they ain't gonna be showin' you the money...

Basically, in the case of small claims, they can string it out forever particulary if they have form, you'll end up paying for what may turn out to be unenforcable enforcement action, and may end up throwing good money down the tube..

In short, way up the cost of pursuing against what you hope to get out of it. There's no point wasting months and good money if it costs more than you'd expect to get back.

The plus side is that once you've got a judgement against an individual or organisation, particularly if you don't mind paying for the pure satisfaction, unless they are judged by the court to have settled the matter to the satisfaction of all, they have an unresolved CCJ against them which pops up as bad debt. In effect as far as I remember, they're added to a national list of debtors available to all to see until they apply and pay to have the CCJ rescinded and their creditworthiness reinstated. Which usually entails paying off the bad debt they got listed for in the first place. In effect, if they want a mortgage, business or private bank loan, car-hire, hire purchase etc etc in the future, your unresolved CCJ against them will haunt them forever!!! Or until they pay up...

It's some time since I played Rumpole of the Bailiffs though. If you want the latest on this stuff, head down to your nearest county court small claims department and ask for an info pack...

I made an application to the county court to "enforce an award" and I was granted a county court judgement so the company how has a CCJ against their name.

I served an order to obtain information on the companies means to pay, ie bank balances, accounts assets, monies due etc.. So that i could then decide on the next step, ie warrent of exicution, third party debt order (the only 2 really that would possibly get anywhere) The order was to summons an officer of the company (director) for questioning about the companies finances, done by a county court bailif. It was this that failed, the bailif couldn't serve the summons as the guy no longer lives at the address he has registered with companies house.

My time is not an issue as i'm looking after my little boy fulltime, and cost is not an issue so far in that i don't have to pay the court fees as we are on a low income.

Does anyone know what route i need to take in order to wind the company up?