Only 20% of court judgments recovered

Only one-in-five court judgments is ever satisfied, according to the Law Society of Ireland, leaving banks and the revenue commissioners hundreds of millions of euro out of pocket.

The chairman of the litigation committee with the Law Society, Eamon Harrington, said that due to the nature of the economy, a lot of people simply cannot pay the court judgments that are secured against them.

“In terms of enforcing judgments, if the target debtor falls into the ‘can pay but won’t pay’ then the success rate can be 100%. However, by way of generalisation, given the current levels of heavy indebtedness and negative equity, the general recovery rate is currently closer to 20%, but creditors still prefer to obtain judgment so as to protect their position,” said Mr Harrington.