Not necessarily.  If you issue legal proceedings against a debtor and they enter an Appearance and Defence to the claim then it may become necessary to obtain a hearing date where the matter cannot be resolved or settled.

Yes – the court requires the original affidavit of debt.

Sheriff

Each county in Ireland has a Sheriff assigned to it. It is the Sheriff’s job to visit the debtor’s premises and seize and sell goods or collect monies owed to cover the debt together with legal costs and interest accrued. At times there can be delays in the process and in some cases the Sheriff can decide that the debtor has no goods worth seizing or selling.

Registration of Judgment in the High Court

Once judgment has been obtained, it can be registered with the High Court which means that the Judgment will be published bringing it to public attention in magazines such as Stubbs Gazette.

Judgment Mortgage

Once Judgment has been obtained, you can apply to have a Judgment Mortgage registered against any property which the debtor owns.  This effectively restricts the debtor’s ability to deal with the property for the period of the Judgment Mortgage unless the debt has been discharged to the owner of the Judgment Mortgage.

Instalment Application

In this instance a debtor can be brought before the District Court to assess their means and ability to pay the debt with a view to the Court making an Instalment Order requiring the debtor to pay the debt by way of a lump sum or regular instalments. The instalments will begin once the order has been served on the debtor.

If the debtor fails to meet the conditions outlined in the Instalment Order then the creditor may apply to Court to seek to have the debtor committed to prison for non-compliance with the Instalment order.

Garnishee Application

A garnishee application may be taken out by the creditor where the creditor is aware that the debt owed can be paid by a third party who owes money to the debtor. The resulting garnishee order will direct the third party to pay the money to the creditor directly on behalf of the debtor in order to discharge the debt.

Bankruptcy

Should the debtor fail to pay the debt to you, despite Judgment having been issued, you have the option to petition the High Court to declare the debtor bankrupt.  The process is quite costly and does not necessarily give the petitioning creditor any priority over other creditors.

Liquidation

Liquidation occurs where a debtor company is unable to pay. The creditor has the option to apply to court to wind up the debtor’s limited company. Even warning the debtor of this option may encourage them to pay the debt quickly to avoid having their company wound.

Examples of when a delay may occur is when there is difficulty in serving the defendant or the debt is disputed or defended.

Each county in Ireland has one or more Sheriffs assigned to it. It is the Sheriff’s job to visit the debtor’s premises and seize goods or collect monies owed to cover the debt together with legal costs and interest accrued. At times there can be delays in the process and in some cases the Sheriff can decide that the debtor has no goods worth seizing or selling.

An affidavit is a legal document that sets out the facts of your case and tells the court that the information contained in the affidavit is 100% true and factual. A simple way to understand an affidavit is to think of it as the written version of a sworn testimony in court. In a courtroom, a witness would take the stand, place their hand on a bible and swear to tell the truth. Whereas, with an affidavit you are doing this in writing. In both scenarios you are under oath, it just so happens that with an affidavit you are under oath on paper.

The issue of “late payment in commercial transactions” is governed by the European Communities (Late Payment in Commercial Transactions) Regulations 2012 – SI 580 of 2012.
Some of the main provisions of the legislation are:
Businesses should pay their invoices within 60 days. Where payment exceeds 60 days, the payment date must be expressly agreed in the contract and not be grossly unfair to the creditor.
In the absence of any agreed payment date between the parties, late payment interest falls due after 30 days has elapsed, provided the invoice is not subject to query.
Enterprises are automatically entitled, without the necessity of a reminder, to charge interest for late payments and compensation costs.
Statutory interest rate for late payment is 8% above the European Central Bank’s reference rate.
Enterprises can challenge grossly unfair terms and/or practices.

Mediation is the method of using a trained neutral facilitator known as a mediator, in order to bring about an agreement between two parties in dispute. Without taking sides or making judgements, they must lead an effective discussion between both parties.

Outlay are items that must be paid for in order to progress with a case. E.g. Court stamp duty, agent’s fee, commissioner for oaths fee etc.

Stamp duty, in the realm of legal proceedings, is a tax payable on certain legal documents.

Costs are awarded by the court on a scale which relates to the value of the debt and the stage of proceedings.

The reason for this is to ensure that by swearing the document by an independent party it shows that you are not being influenced by another person.

While it is possible to recover some costs from the debtor, you cannot recover all of your costs from the debtor.  You are at all times responsible for your costs.