January Judgments

The last four weeks has seen 479 plaintiffs take Irish Consumers and Corporates to court over unpaid debts, compared to 496 for same period last year.

Of the 479 cases, 165 were against sole traders and limited companies and 314 against consumers.

The value of the bad debts reached €28.2m compared to €64m for the same period last year,  a drop of 56%. Commercial bad debts accounted for €3m compared to €3.8 for same period last year and consumer bad debts accounted for €25m, compared to a whopping €60m for same period in 2012.  Part of the reason for this was five substantial judgments in favour of IBRC totaling €35m taken in January 2012.

A Closer Look - Plaintiffs:

There are signs that the Revenue is taking a more aggressive approach. So far, Revenue has obtained 135 judgments amounting to €6.7m which is up 61% in volume and 21% in value.

Conversely, the Financial Institutions have been less active in comparison to last year. To date, they have obtained 38 judgments  totaling a mere €10m compared to 57 and €50m for last year.

The County Councils are accelerating legal action against local businesses for unpaid rates owed to them. They have increased their volume of judgments by 124% and the value has also increased by 45%.

The value of bad debts owed to the Credit Unions fell by one quarter to €691,000 for the first month of the year.