Statement of Claim: How Do I Collect My Money After a Court Judgment?

You are owed money. You send a letter of demand and receive no response. You may decide to send a further two demand letters but still receive no response. You then lodge your debt in court by filing what is called a statement of claim. One of two things could happen: either the debtor responds or may still choose not to. Either way, once the court makes a judgment in your favour for repayment of your debt, this judgment is enforceable.

Normally, once there is a judgment against them, a debtor will pay within the specified timeframe. However, in some instances this does not happen and the debtor ignores the court judgment and still does not pay. This means that although you have a judgment against the debtor, you will need to commence enforcement proceedings against the debtor to collect your debt.

The amount of time that you have to start proceedings enforcing the judgment varies from state to state and is between 6 to 12 years from the time the judgment is given in your favour.

To begin enforcement proceedings against a debtor you must first register the judgment at your local court if it is not already in their records. Each time enforcement proceedings are commenced against a person, the judgment is entered on the debtors' credit record for 5 years. This means that even if the debtor subsequently pays you, it will remain on their credit record. The impact this may cause and the threat of this on the debtor's record may be enough for them to finally pay you.

Once this enforcement proceeding is on court record, there are a number of ways that the court can enforce the judgment to obtain your money. These remedies include garnishing the debtor's wages, ordering the debtor's assets to be sold and may even go as far as imprisoning the debtor. Unfortunately, even after all this, there is no guarantee that you will receive full or any payment of your debt at all, particularly if the debtor is bankrupt or is unable to be located. If you have personal knowledge of the debtor's financial situation, it may be best to wait until you are certain that they have enough assets to satisfy the judgment debt against them before asking the court to enforce your judgment.

If you choose to wait to enforce your judgment and obtain your money, it is essential to the limitation period is to enforce your judgment in your particular state or territory. If this period lapses then there can no longer be enforcement of your judgment and you lose your opportunity to be repaid by the debtor permanently.

Other options you may consider to enforce your judgment for your debt include applying to the court to have the debtor made bankrupt and similarly in the case of a company that owes you money, applying to have the company wound up. In order to take this extreme measure, there is a minimum debt amount required for the debt owed. In New South Wales, for example, this minimum amount is currently $5000. In any event, you should seek legal advice before considering this avenue and taking this serious action.

In summary, if a debtor does not agree to pay after a settlement or a judgment against them, it can be a cumbersome and lengthy process to recover the debt owed to you, particularly if they continue to elude payment.

Want to know more? Click here for Free information on Legal123 Statement of Claim. Australian legal agreements and forms from http://www.legal123.com.au/.

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How To Make An Injury Claim in UK?

As per Health and Safety Executive (HSE), in 2010/11, employers reported 115 000 work-related injuries under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR), 1995. However, in total, 603 000 employees had an accident at their workplace. These statistics clearly indicate that workers are usually reluctant to make a work injury claim.

Why make an injury claim?

Once you have injured yourself at the place of work, you need time to recover from your personal injury. While you are off work, many financial problems come to the fore like utility bills and taxes, insurance premiums and mortgage repayments. To deal with these problems, you go back to work before you fully recover, and thereby, worsen your injury.

If the accident occurred because your employer failed to comply with the Health and Safety regulations, then you can rightfully ask him for compensation. By filing a personal injury claim, your employers insurers will compensate you for your losses and injuries.

Types of work injury claims

Apart from factory, construction site and warehouse accidents, there are many other kinds of calamities, where the worker can justifiably make a compensation claim. For instance, if driving a van or car is a part of your job, then your employer should ensure that the vehicle is roadworthy. An accident in which you sustain injury because the vehicle developed some fault due to lack of proper maintenance, you are entitled to make a claim for work accident compensation. Thus, it is the duty of the employer to make the workplace safe and secure for the workers as well as cut-down the risk of accidents. Whenever he fails to do so, the employers can lawfully make work accident claims.

Things to remember while filing a personal injury claim

The first thing that you need to do is to inform your employer about the accident. In your report, include such details as the date, time and cause of the accident, people who witnessed the accident, and the extent of your injury. Make sure that your employer is notified within 3 days from the date of the accident.

If the accident occurred because of the fault of the employer, then you are entitled to make a claim. Hire a competent solicitor; while you nurse your injuries, your solicitor will help you to make a claim and compel your employer to compensate you correctly.

On your first meeting with the lawyer, you would have to provide him in-depth details of the accident, contact information of your colleagues who witnessed the accident, medical diagnosis and treatment reports, trade union information, and details pertaining to insurance and loss of earning. On the basis of this information, your solicitor will file your claim within 7 days after the accident took place.

Additionally, he will advice you on the best path that should be followed to resolve the problem. In simple words, he will persuade the defendant on your behalf to settle the case either in or out of the court. After you get the compensation, you would have to pay off all the expenses that the lawyer undertook to tackle your case.

Often, it is not easy to make a work injury claim. A proficient solicitor not only simplifies the process, but also ensures that you get the right amount of compensation for your personal injury. To make an Injury Claim you may like to use Injury Lawyers UK Ltd.

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Statement of Claim: When Do I to Use the Court to Get My Debt Paid?

A statement of claim is a legal form that is filed with the courts to commence a formal legal action against your debtor who is refusing to pay you. It is only done after you have sent at least one letter of demand to the debtor and received no action or result.

The court wants to ensure you have tried to settle your debt issues outside of the court process and that coming to court is a last resort. The court will require evidence of your attempt to settle your debt in form of a letter of demand. You will need to be able to show it was received and not actioned by the debtor.

A statement of claim is filed after you have tried to request and negotiate payment from the debtor and all options have failed. The claim form can be obtained from the website of your local court. In this form, information regarding your debtor will be required such as name, address, ACN if it is a business, and evidence of both debt and refusal to pay after notification. You do not need a lawyer to fill this out for you. It can be done on your own and a filing fee will be payable to lodge it with your local court.

You can serve the statement of claim yourself by doing this in person or alternatively by having a process server do so. A third option available is by paying a fee to the court to send it by post. You cannot properly serve a statement of claim by sending it yourself in the mail, even if you send it by registered post. It is only a small fee to have the court post the statement of claim for you and they keep the record of posting for their files. It is important to note that however you decide to deliver it, you must do so within 6 months of filing your claim. You should not delay in sending it and should do so as early as possible in the event that there are difficulties in contacting the debtor.

After you have filed and served the statement of claim, the debtor may still contact you to settle the debt to avoid going to court. Alternatively, a debtor can respond directly to the court by filing a defense, or an acknowledgment of the debt, an acknowledgment of a liquidated claim (where the debtor pays in installments), or they may pay the claim. They may also still choose not to do anything.

There is a time limit for the debtor to file a response with the court. They have 28 days from the date they were served the claim to respond otherwise the court will file an automatic judgment in favour of the person claiming the debt.

In many cases receiving a statement of claim will be enough to prompt a debtor to settle or to enter an acknowledgment with the court that they owe the debt. If the debtor contacts you personally and agrees to pay, you should ask the debtor to file the acknowledgement of the payment formally with the court. By doing this, the court will enforce payment if the debtor still does not pay. You should always ensure everything follows the formal process to protect your claim.

Want to know more? Click here for Free information on Legal123 Statement of Claim. Australian legal agreements and forms from http://www.legal123.com.au/.

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