How to Set Aside a Default County Court Judgment

A judgment will be entered against you in the civil county courts if you

a) do not file an Acknowledgment of Service and/or a Defence
b) lose at a final hearing

If you have lost at a hearing then you may be able to appeal the judgment against you, but you would normally have to obtain permission to do so in the first instance.

If you have not sent to court the relevant response required to a claim then a judgment will be entered against you automatically in default

There are limited circumstances in which you could apply to a court to have a default judgment ‘set aside’

Section 13 of the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) governs when a court must and when a court will set aside a default judgment

Setting Aside – Must

A court must set aside if the judgment in default was wrongly entered because service of the claim was not properly effected in accordance with section 6 of the CPR.

There are very strict rules on what will be ‘deemed’ service (regardless of whether you actually receive the claim).

Rule 13.2 means that the court does not need to consider the merits of the underlying case.

Setting Aside – May

In contrast a court may set aside (or vary) a default judgment under CPR 13.3 if

a) There is a real prospect of successfully defending the claim, or
b) There is other good reason

But this requires the defendant to act promptly in any such application

What constitutes a ‘good reason’ is very broad to enable the most flexibility to the court to achieve justice. For example, this may include where service was deemed but in fact you do not actually receive the claim, or the claimant did not send you the response pack with the claim so you unaware of how to respond to the claim.

Why is it important?

A county court judgment (CCJ) will affect your credit rating for up to 6 years, which will affects things like getting a mortgage, renting a property or even getting a job.

CCJs are noted on the Registry of Judgments, Orders and Fines

If you do not wish to set aside a CCJ but want this removed then you can do so by paying the debt in full within 30 days. If a debt is paid after 30 days it can then be noted as a ‘discharged’ CCJ.

As time is of essence, you need to seek quick and appropriate advice as soon as possible as further delay will prejudice your chances of being able to get a judgment set aside and that can have adverse long term repercussions. To speak to our debt recovery experts please call 0330 822 3451 or request a callback.