CLAIMANTS EXPOSED
The government is to legislate to include in the Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines, run by Registry Trust, the name —but neither the address nor the favourite knuckleduster supplier—of the claimant. One of the outcomes not considered is that claimants will be bombarded at the wrong office by registry snoopers with pleas to be told what dirt they have on the defendant, whether they know if they own a garden water feature which could be easily taken away by a bailiff, and are they going to bring bankruptcy proceedings or not.
These days, the registry catches money judgments of both the High Court and county court, excluding orders in family proceedings and judgments for arrears of mortgage instalments or rent unless and until the claimant takes a step to enforce. And—this is the big exclusion—a judgment arising out of a contested hearing (even though the defence was a pile of nonsense or the defendant failed to turn up at the hearing),
