A New Legal Year

As mentioned in a previous Debt Recovery article collection litigation has reflected economic cycles with the consequent time-lag that one might expect. This trend was seen in the sizeable rise of debt recovery proceedings from 2009 to 2011, in particular, and the subsequent fall-off in numbers from 2012 onward. Statistics presented in the Courts Service 2015 Annual Report (the "Report") confirm that this trend continued into 2015, with figures for judgments marked in both the High Court and Circuit Court down 41% on their 2014 equivalents. Overall the number of judgments marked in court offices fell from 16,889 in 2014 to 14,204 in 2015. Interestingly though, there was a 14% increase in judgments marked in the District Court (to 8,836 in 2015 from 7,771 in 2014).