The Government’s hardening approach to debt recovery
and its new “get tough” approach to people
who do not pay compensation awarded by Employment Tribunals
has been welcomed as a “major milestone” by
the Chief Executive of Shergroup, the UK’s leading
High Court Enforcement Agency.
In a written ministerial statement from Justice Minister
Jack Straw, plans are set out to make certain the High
Court Enforcement Officers’ Association can develop
a service whereby successful applicants will be able to
instruct a High Court Enforcement Officer to enforce their
award or settlement as soon as the respondent fails to
pay the sum due.
The costs of enforcement will be recoverable from the
respondent, with limited cost liability for the creditor.
The announcement comes after the Chief Executive Officer
of Shergroup, Claire Sandbrook, qualified solicitor, held
top-level talks with Citizens Advice officials who wanted
to highlight a gap in enforcement provision when people
had won their Employment Tribunal hearing.
Mrs. Sandbrook, who is also Chair of the UK's High Court
Enforcement Officers’ Association, says: “We
fully endorse the Government’s new-found determination
to ensure that individuals who are entitled to their Employment
Tribunal awards or ACAS settlements are not denied access
to justice by a small minority of unscrupulous individuals
or companies who refuse to respect the Tribunal’s
judgment and pay out.
“These changes mark a major milestone for High Court
Enforcement Officers, in recognising that as a national
agency we can help the traditional creditor as well as
other types of litigant who engage in the judicial process,
and come out of that process with a judgment that needs
to be paid.
“It seemed to us highly unfair that employees who
had been successful in winning compensation against their
former employer should be denied the very essence of justice
in not securing payment.
“Much is written in these difficult times about
vulnerable people in financial straits, and so I applaud
the initiative of the CAB to recognise that people who
have won a decision from the court are just as vulnerable
if the enforcement system lets them down and they can’t
secure payment. Along with my HCEO colleagues, we are
looking forward to working with Ministry officials to
demonstrate that these types of cases can have successful
outcomes and that people with Awards can find justice
in the court system. To us it represents the first positive
signal for some time that the Government wants to get
tough on making people aware that consequences will follow
if the order of the court is ignored”.
Shergroup’s High Court enforcement brand “Sherforce”
has already seen a rise in the number of Tribunal Awards
being sent in for enforcement. Claire Sandbrook says,
“The process is not as straightforward as we would
like at the moment, but we offer a free service to convert
a Tribunal Award into a High Court Writ of Fieri Facias
(Fi Fa), which will save legal professionals and litigants
in person from the headache of engaging in the court system.
Our teams deal with all the County Courts across England
and Wales, and we intend to support court staff as more
Awards are transferred for enforcement. Once we have the
Writ, we begin our process of enforcement, which will
mean levying and, if needs be, removing goods from the
former employer to enforce payment”. To find out
more about how Sherforce works see www.sherforce.net
