The Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines and TrustOnline

A county court judgment, usually called a CCJ, is a civil court order that says you owe money and sets out how and when it must be repaid¹. If a CCJ is made against you, it is normally recorded on a public register called the Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines². Courts send details of new CCJs to the Registry Trust, which operates the Register³, and anyone can search it online through a service called TrustOnline for a fee of £6 to £10⁴.

The Register matters because it is public. Credit reference agencies take information from it, so a CCJ appears on your credit file for six years¹, where it can make borrowing harder or more expensive⁵. The one big exception is timing: if you pay the debt in full within one month of the judgment date, you can apply to the court to have the entry removed⁶. Pay later than that and the entry stays for the full six years, though it can be marked as satisfied, meaning paid¹.

What the Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines records

The Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines is the public record of court orders for money in England and Wales. Almost all county court and High Court judgments are recorded on it and kept there for six years⁴. When a court makes a CCJ, it sends the details to the Registry Trust, the body that operates the Register³, and the entry becomes a public record that others, including credit reference agencies, can access¹.

Judgments are not the only things recorded. The Register is organised in sections: Section 1 covers England and Wales county court judgments, and Section 2 covers England and Wales High Court judgments, administration orders, magistrates' court fine defaults and Child Support Agency liability orders⁴. An administration order, which consolidates several debts into one court-supervised payment, is listed on the Register and publicly available at TrustOnline⁸, as is a composition order made as part of one⁹. Child maintenance liability orders can also be registered in the Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines, which may affect the paying parent's credit rating¹⁰.

CCJs are often used to recover non-priority debts, such as credit card debts and payday loans¹¹. A creditor who wants a CCJ must usually send you a letter before action or a default notice first, depending on the type of creditor¹¹, so a judgment is normally the end of a process rather than a surprise beginning. The advice on this page applies to residents in England and Wales only³; Scotland and Northern Ireland are covered in their own section below.

What an entry shows, and what it leaves out

A Register entry is deliberately sparse. The register shows your name and address, whether you have a CCJ or decree, the date of the judgment, the amount owed, and the name of the court that issued the judgment¹². Another description of the public register of court actions puts it the same way: your name and address, details of the court action taken, and the date and the amount owed at the point the action happened¹³.

What the Register does not show is just as important. It does not say the name of the creditor, so you will need to contact the court for this¹². It also does not track your payments: the amount shown is the amount owed when the action happened, not your current balance. And it does not show charging orders separately. Only CCJs are recorded on your credit file, not separate charging orders that secure a debt against your home¹⁴.

If you suspect a CCJ has been made against you, you can check your credit report with Experian, Equifax or TransUnion¹, or search the Register itself. The Register is a public record, so the information can be accessed by others, including credit reference agencies¹, which is why an entry reaches your credit file even though the Register and the credit file are separate things. The Registry Trust notifies credit reference agencies of all decrees, recalls and dismissals on a regular basis¹⁵.

Checking the Register on TrustOnline: £6 to £10 per search

The Register is searched through TrustOnline, the Registry Trust's online service. You can check for any judgments recorded against you through the public register for a small fee¹. The fee depends on how much of the Register you search, because the Register is split into sections covering different order types⁴:

The same fee structure applies to the Scottish register: £6 to search one section, with each additional name or address search costing the standard fee less 10%¹⁶. Guidance on finding who you owe money to gives the £6 fee for accessing the Registry Trust's public register of judgments¹², and the public register of court actions is searched by contacting Registry Trust online and paying a fee of £6¹³. Anyone can check if you have an outstanding CCJ for a fee of £4³; the sources give different figures for what a search costs, and the fee you pay depends on which service and how many sections you use.

Searching your own entry is worthwhile before applying for credit, because an old CCJ you have forgotten about can surface in a lender's check. If you find an entry you did not know about, the sections below on setting a judgment aside and on wrong entries set out what you can do. Free access to your credit report, which will show a CCJ that has reached the credit reference agencies, is covered in how to check your credit report for free.

How long entries stay: six years for judgments, five for fines

Almost all county court and High Court judgments are recorded on the Register and kept on it for six years⁴. The same six-year rule applies to the information held by the Registry Trust's public register of judgments¹², to sheriff court decrees in Scotland¹⁶, and to a CCJ on the Register and your credit files⁵. The Information Commissioner's guidance on credit files records the same position: six years from the date of the judgment, even if it is paid in full, though it may be removed if it is paid in full within one month of the judgment date¹⁷.

Some magistrates' court fines are different. Where a fine default is added to the Register in specific circumstances, those entries stay on the register for five years⁷.

The judgment date starts the clock: pay within a month and the entry can be removed; pay later and it is marked satisfied but stays for six years.

The six-year clock runs from the judgment date, not from when you found out about the CCJ or when you last paid anything. A CCJ is removed from the Register and your credit file after six years, even if you have not paid it³. The debt itself may still be enforceable after that, although the creditor would usually need the court's permission to take certain steps once six years have passed⁵. How long other kinds of information stay on your file is covered in how long information stays on your credit file.

Paid within one month: getting a CCJ cancelled

The one-month rule is the only way a paid CCJ comes off the Register early. If you pay the debt in full within one month of the date of the CCJ, you can apply to the court to have your entry in the Register removed⁶. Pay the CCJ in full within one month of the judgment and apply to the court for a certificate of cancellation to stop it being added to the register¹⁸. If you pay off the full CCJ amount within a month of judgment, you can apply to have the CCJ removed³, and if you pay the full amount within one month of the judgment date, you can ask for the entry to be removed¹. Pay it in full immediately and it will not be recorded on your credit file¹⁹.

The process is straightforward but it is not automatic. You apply to the court for a certificate of cancellation, paying a £15 fee¹⁹, which may be available free if you are on a low income¹⁹. Once the court has everything it needs, it tells the Registry Trust to remove the judgment from the public register¹⁹. Until that happens the entry can still be seen, so it is worth applying promptly rather than assuming payment alone clears the record.

The month runs from the date of the judgment, not the date you were told about it. That makes the rule harsh where papers went to an old address and you learned of the CCJ late; in that situation the route is usually to apply to set the judgment aside, covered below, rather than the one-month rule. The dedicated page on paying a CCJ within a month goes through the steps in detail.

Paid later: a satisfied entry stays for the full six years

If you pay after one month, the entry can be marked as satisfied but it will remain for the full six years¹. A note is made against your entry on the Register to show that the debt has been satisfied, or paid⁶, and the CCJ will still stay on your credit report until the six years is up, but your record will show that you have paid the debt⁶.

To get the entry marked, apply for a certificate of satisfaction from the same County Court hearing centre that issued the judgment, providing proof of payment using court form N443³. There is a £15 court fee to apply³, which can be waived or reduced if you are on a low income⁶. Once the certificate is granted, the register will show the CCJ as paid off or satisfied³. If you pay the CCJ in full after one calendar month, you can ask for your entry to be marked as satisfied if you provide proof of payment, but the CCJ will still stay on your credit reference file²⁰.

You cannot remove the entry early just because you have paid it³. The practical difference is real, though: a satisfied entry makes it easier to apply for credit in the six years before the CCJ drops off your credit file³, because a lender reading the file can see the debt is cleared rather than still outstanding. The steps for the certificate are set out fully in getting a certificate of satisfaction for a paid CCJ.

Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own registers

The Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines covers England and Wales. Scotland keeps its own record. Decrees are the Scottish equivalent to money judgments, known as county court judgments or CCJs, in England and Wales²¹. The Registry Trust maintains a public register containing all simple procedure, small claims and summary cause money decrees granted in the sheriff courts during the preceding six years²¹, with details of Scottish decrees supplied by the sheriff courts to the Registry Trust¹⁵.

The removal rules for decrees differ from the English one-month rule in detail: decrees are only removed from the Register if they are recalled by the court, entered in error or paid in full within one calendar month of the date of decree²¹. Satisfaction also works differently. In Scotland, it is not the court that issues the certificate; you get a letter of satisfaction from the pursuer in the action, or the pursuer's solicitor, explaining that the debt has been paid, then send it to Registry Trust Limited with their administration fee and confirmation of your name and address at the time of the decree²¹. The letter needs the name of the court, the case number, the date of decree, the amount of decree and the date the debt was repaid in full¹⁵. Marking a paid decree as satisfied carries a £6 fee, sent to Trust Online with evidence from the pursuer that the debt has been paid¹⁶. The Registry Trust notifies credit reference agencies of all decrees, recalls and dismissals on a regular basis²¹.

Northern Ireland has its own court system and its own arrangements for judgments; the Scottish and Northern Irish courts have similar orders to charging orders¹⁴, but decrees and NI judgments are not entries on the England and Wales Register. These differences are covered in credit files in Scotland and credit files in Northern Ireland.

Where an entry is wrong: setting aside a judgment

A judgment can be cancelled by the court, which removes it from the Register. If you only found out about a judgment after it was made, perhaps because the papers went to an old address, you may be able to apply to set aside the judgment⁵. Setting aside asks the court to cancel the CCJ and reopen the case so you can properly respond; it usually involves a fee and may require a hearing¹. An entry is also removed if the judgment is set aside by the court⁴.

The court will not set a judgment aside simply because you would have preferred to defend the claim. The usual ground is that you did not receive the papers, or there is some other good reason the judgment should not stand. Once the court agrees and the judgment is set aside, it tells the Registry Trust to remove the judgment from the public register¹⁹.

A wrong entry on a credit file, as opposed to a wrong judgment, follows a different route. Under the Consumer Credit (Credit Reference Agency) Regulations 2000, an application by an objector or a business consumer must give particulars of the entry in the file, state why it is considered incorrect and why the applicant is likely to be prejudiced if it is not corrected²². That process applies to credit reference agency files; the Register itself is corrected through the court. Both routes are covered in when a CCJ or register entry is not yours or is wrong and how to correct wrong information on your credit report.

How a Register entry affects borrowing and renting

A CCJ can make borrowing harder or more expensive while it is recorded on your credit files⁵. It goes on your credit file for six years from the date it was issued²³, and this will count against you if you apply for credit in the future²⁴. Having a CCJ can affect your credit rating and may make it harder to obtain credit in the future²². The CCJ will appear on your credit report, the information a credit reference agency provides to companies⁶, and a county court judgment will stay on your credit for six years²⁵.

Renting is affected too. It might be difficult to start renting a home from a private landlord or letting agent if you have a CCJ against you⁶, because landlords and agents commonly run credit checks on prospective tenants. In Scotland, a First-tier Tribunal decision that includes an order for payment or eviction may be sent to the Registry Trust and be accessible through Trust Online, which could affect your credit rating²⁶.

The consequences of not dealing with a judgment go beyond credit. If you do not pay what is owed or make a payment arrangement, further action can include bailiffs visiting you, an attachment of earnings order, a third party debt order, a charging order, or a bankruptcy application²³. If you owe more than £5,000 and do not pay, creditors can apply to make you bankrupt²³. If you own a property, the creditor can apply for a charging order that secures the debt against your home²⁵. If a judgment has already been made and the payment terms are too high, you can apply to vary the CCJ, asking the court to change the order so you pay in affordable instalments, with a detailed budget and possibly a small court fee¹. Free, impartial help with all of this is available from debt charities and from the debt section of this site, and rebuilding your credit after debt problems covers what happens once the entry is gone.

Responding to a court claim before it reaches the Register

Everything above is easier to avoid than to undo. A creditor must usually send a letter before action or a default notice before going to court¹¹. When the claim form arrives, the claims pack includes instructions and the N9a form you use to respond²³. If you do not respond within the timeframe on the papers, which is normally 14 days from service, the creditor can ask the court to enter judgment in default¹. If you disagree with the claim and need more time, you can usually acknowledge service to extend your deadline to file a defence¹.

How you respond to a claim form decides what kind of judgment, if any, is made.

Depending on your response, the court can enter judgment by admission if you accept the debt and ask for time to pay, enter judgment in default if you do not respond, or list a hearing if you defend the claim⁵. The judgment can say you must pay the full balance straightaway (forthwith) or in instalments the court considers affordable for you⁵. If you attempt to defend the claim but are unsuccessful, the CCJ will not be registered unless the court has ordered instalments to be paid, or the creditor takes steps to enforce the debt².

Ignoring the claim is the worst option. If you ignore a CCJ, more court action can be taken against you³, and you lose the chance to challenge the CCJ, make a payment plan, or pay it off²³. There are alternatives even at the court stage: a Tomlin order can be agreed after the lender has issued a County Court claim but before the judgment¹⁸, and if the court makes a time order on a regulated agreement and you keep up to date with the payments, your creditor cannot apply for a county court judgment to be made, so a judgment will not appear on the Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines or on credit reference agency files²⁷. How to defend a claim, and the deadlines that apply, is covered in the debt section.