High court civil defence

I have to defend a high court action against me. This will run into thousands of euro costs to me if I lose.
What if I don't have the huge sums of money asked of me ? What if they seize any assets I have ? Forgive my ignorance but does this mean that my assets are now gone and I no longer have to pay finance on them ??
Will the courts sell my assets in an attempt to profit from them in order to fit the bill to the plaintiff? What if they can't make profit on them ... ?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Best to ask your solicitor I would think.

If you still owe money on them, i dont think they can be classed as assets.

Are you talking about a car? I dont think they can take the car and then re-sell it. And if they did do this i woul imagine you would still need to re-pay the finance, which is why i doubt they will.

Thanks. what about a mortgage on a property ?

Or whats the general rule for if someone just does not have the money they've been sued for ?

If you lose and a judgment is obtained against you, the other side has some options

• Sheriff - who is empowered to sieze assets to pay the debt
• Garnishee order - where the creditor can take a portion of your income directly from source (your employer would be give a court order to pay a certain amount every week/month to the creditor)
• Judgment mortgage which effectively converts the judgment to a mortgage on property you own - if you still fail to pay, the creditor can eventually seek and order for sale over the property

Judgments also attract interest at Court Rate (not sure how much it is at the moment).

Is a settlement possible?

Well if you have equity in your house then i suppose it's possible. If no equity then no of course they wont cause there wont be any money left after the sale.

If you dont mind me asking exacetly how much are you talking about?

I wouldn't know 100% but i would of thought if you do lose and dont have the money and have no equity in your house, and no assets, then you would be made to make weekly/monthy instalments untill the debt is paid of.

If you are unable to pay these instalments because of financial reason i really dont know what would happen. They cant order you to pay what you dont have, you have to survive your self as well.

Are you going to have to pay a solicitor as well? I would really have a chat with someone that knows 100% what they are talking about and what chances you have of winning. It could be better to try and settle at a lower amount, offer what you can honestly afford each week/month.

Maddison02 said:

I have to defend a high court action against me. This will run into thousands of euro costs to me if I lose.
What if I don't have the huge sums of money asked of me ? What if they seize any assets I have ? Forgive my ignorance but does this mean that my assets are now gone and I no longer have to pay finance on them ??
Will the courts sell my assets in an attempt to profit from them in order to fit the bill to the plaintiff? What if they can't make profit on them ... ?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Click to expand...

Your details are very sketchy. You don't seem to own your assets as you say you have finance on them. First call on the assets would be the bank if it is a mortgage and fianance company if it is a car.

Based on what you've posted I hope you have a good barrister - that's the best advice I can give you unless you give some more details.

Thanks for the replies folks, you have basically confirmed my own thoughts. I do expect to win the case and will definitely not be making any settlements but just needed some clarity around the worse case scenario.

Thank you.