Court case over access to debt judgments

LEGAL PROCEEDINGS have been issued against the Courts Service over the removal of public access to some debt judgments. The proceedings were initiated yesterday by Irish Judgments, a company which collates debt judgments.

Debt judgments help to provide information for businesses about the financial history of anyone with whom they are dealing, such as whether a debt has been registered against the person.

A decision by the Courts Service last year means there is no longer public access to circuit and district court debt judgments. The decision followed an internal review which found there was no legal basis for making the information available.

A reversal of the decision was essential because it made lending a lot more difficult, because decisions are made on “incomplete data”, said Malcolm Hurlston, chairman of Registry Trust, parent company of Irish Judgments.

“Complete and accurate data of court judgment registrations is of the utmost importance to credit reference agencies, credit unions and consumers,” Mr Hurlston added.

The proceedings are based on both the Human Rights Act and Article 34.1 of the constitution which says that justice “shall be administered in public”.

An increase by a third in the number of judgments registered at the Four Courts last year (to more than 7,000) was “proof of their importance”, Mr Hurlston said.

Some 17,000 circuit and district court debt judgments were recorded by Registry Trust last year.

An 80 per cent increase in Irish searches at the company’s website, to almost 7,000, showed the growing interest of lenders and consumers in debt judgments at a time of crisis, the company said.

Traditionally, information about debt judgments was available to the public through inspection of “cause books” within circuit and district courts.

This information was collected by Irish Judgments and sold to commercial publications.