Without enforcement, judgments are worthless. HHJ Karen Walden-Smith sets out the Civil Justice Council’s recommendations to improve effectiveness & efficiency
- In March 2025, a working group from the Civil Justice Council published a report on the enforcement of judgments. This article discusses the work of the group and its findings.
- The report highlights areas for reform, with 39 recommendations, including making enforcement more effective, better protecting the vulnerable, and creating a single unified digital enforcement court.
Enforcement can never be said to be at the racier end of civil litigation, and for far too long it has been overlooked as an area for consideration or reform. Since the 1980s, reforms—from Woolf and Jackson and the Briggs Civil Courts Structure Review 2016 to the HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) Reform programme—have aimed to make civil litigation more efficient. While enforcement was considered by Lord Briggs, he did not have the remit to deal with this issue in detail. The last major reforms were contained in the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 and the Taking Control of Goods Regulations
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