On May 13, the statistics for CCJs for the first quarter of 2019. were published by Registry Trust, who keeps the records of CCJs in England and Wales.
There were more than 320,000 consumer CCJs in the three months, the highest number recorded for a quarter.
Consumers are being sued more often for smaller amounts of money
The graph shows how the number of CCJs in the first quarter of each year has risen every year for the last five years. This is a sustained trend – in the first quarter of each of the last three years there have been more than a hundred thousand CCJs a month.
And the average (mean) size of these consumer CCJs has been dropping every year. In the last quarter it was £1,398 – a record low.
But the median is a more interesting statistic than the mean. The mean can be impacted by a few very large CCJs. The median gives a truer picture, showing the “halfway point” – if you list all the CCJs by size, the median is the middle number.
This is the first year that Registry Trust has provided the median figures. The median CCJ is now just £628, down from £684 last year.
So half of all CCJs were for less than £628. That is a surprisingly low number.
Why are there more CCJs but they are smaller?
The trend towards more CCJs of smaller value mirrors the trends reported by all the national debt charities towards clients having less consumer debt but being in a worse position – with more priority debt (which doesn’t usually show in CCJ statistics) and/or falling disposable incomes.
But it would be useful to have more infomration about the CCJs.
Mick McAteer, deputy chairman of Registry Trust, said:
Accurate judgment information reduces the risk of inappropriate lending and borrowing, and is a useful indicator of the state of household finances. The number of judgments has hit record levels yet again but the average value continues to fall. It is not clear what explains these trends in England and Wales because centralised data on who is taking the legal actions isn’t available.
McAteer is referring here to who the claimant is – which lender or debt collector is taking the consumers to court.
Claimant information is not available for England and Wales but is published for Northern Ireland. This revealed the startling statistic that Amigo is the claimant with the larges value of CCJs in Northern Ireland in 2018. This data supports anecdotal evidence from debt advisers that guarantor lenders are faster to go to court than any other CCA lenders.
This claimant information for England and Wales would be useful in helping to interpret the raw CCJ numbers and how they change from year to year. How many CCJs are from water companies? debt collectors? etc
It may be possible to unpick from claimant information changing factors. For example are there increasing numbers of private parking tickets, see this newspaper article: The DVLA flogged 6.8M driver details to parking firms dishing out tickets last year ?
Practical implications if you are in debt
100,000 CCJs a month sounds scary, but a lender or debt collector is much less likely to go for a CCJ if you have an arrangement to pay in place.
It is unusual for a loan or credit card firm to take customers to court – the only exception here is guarantor loans. If you have any problems with a guarantor lender, read Complaining about a guarantor loan and take advice urgently. Don’t wait until a court case starts!
Not ignoring debts and letters is generally the best advice. Even if you don’t recognise them or think they are “too old” or you can’t afford to pay them:
- if you get a Letter Before Action/Claim this is your last chance to challenge a debt or reach an agreement before a court case starts – read How to reply to a Letter Before Claim about a debt;
- if a Claim Form arrives, get debt advice fast, even if you can’t afford to pay the whole debt, see What to do if you get a Claim Form. You may have a good defence that you don’t know about!
If you have a letter saying you have a judgement against you, read What to do if you have a CCJ to see what your options are.
Not heard from a debt collector for years?
Do you have to keep paying old debt?
Ask for the CCA agreement for old debts
warwick65 says
I wonder if this is because more larger CCJ’s are being defended successfully or are the debt purchasers aware of the this and less likely to go after larger amounts because they become economic to use a fixed fee lawyer or even a CFA.
It would be interesting to know if the type and value of debts the purchasers are acquiring have changed over time. No doubt the causes are complex and multi faceted
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I doubt it. I think there are just a lot more smaller CCJs.
Ffionpearl says
I’m fairly sure it’s debt purchasers securing their debt. They buy low and the fees are worth it to them to enforce and avoid limitation. And Amigo is no surprise: I bet them Lowell and Cabot would hit the top ten if we had claimant stats here. And our local water co would not be far behind.
Graham O'Malley says
I think from a policy and regulation perspective, it’s unfortunate we don’t get claimant name. It’d be a good starting to point to look at a claimant’s stats and ask ‘why are you suing so often when other comparable firms aren’t?’ It’d be interesting to see who topped our E&W list and how they’d justify it.
The PRA v Doyle decision might encourage debt purchasers even more now that for the majority of CCA cases the limitations issue is clearer.
Thanks again Sara,
Graham