€20m judgments against companies

THE value of court judgments against companies for the recovery of unpaid debt continued to rise in the first quarter of this year, hitting almost €20 million.

One judgment was for €9.8m, the highest value of a single judgment in the last 15 months, against Bernard McNamara and his company, Donatex.

The construction sector accounted for the largest number of court judgments filed hitting €4.2m, with €900,000 worth of judgments in real estate and renting.

Manufacturing saw a steady decline since the second quarter of last year, while retail and wholesale experienced its annual quarter one spike.

Dublin-based companies accounted for the majority of judgments with €12.8m.

There were 44 judgments in Cork totalling €666,607 and accounting for 3.3% of the national total.

This was a drop of 48% on the same period in 2009.

All but seven counties saw the value of judgments increase when compared to the same period last year.

Product and marketing leader with ICC Information, Michael Gannon said: “Almost 20% of all those companies that called creditors meetings in 2009 had at least one court judgment against them and so companies need to be mindful when extending credit to companies,” he said.