Avoiding registration

Under the Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines Regulations 2005, a judgment arising out of a contested county court hearing is not registrable at the Register of County Court Judgments etc. The Judicial Line, in the New Law Journal of 28 January posed and answered the question: ‘Does this still apply if the defendant did not turn up at the trial which led to the judgment, although he had filed the defence and otherwise participated in the proceedings?’ The answer was: ‘Yes, it does.’ The filing of the defence would have rendered the claim contested for the purposes of the regulations. The defendant’s absence from the trial does not convert the claim into an uncontested case. After all, the court might dismiss the claim on a one-sided hearing even in the defendants absence if the claimants case has not been improved to its satisfaction. It is not unknown for a defendant to file an unmeritorious defence with the sole object of prolonging registration of a judgment until enforcement action is taken notwithstanding that this would almost certainly increase his costs of liability (even on a small claims hearing).