Court Judgement.

[derekpara]

Following on from my last post re eviction, court correspondence to the company that owes my daughter £17K plus for unpaid salary has been returned to the court marked ' Gone Away'. The court has now issued a Court Judgement in my daughter's favour.

What does this mean ? What will the court do now, if anything, and what are the chances of getting the money ?

Thanks.

D

[factor-fiction]

It could be very difficult, especially if the person is difficult to track down or pleads poverty
A relative got a judgement in her favour for around £5000 but the person proved very elusive and never repaid a penny

[tonywiltshire]

As you know all workers are entitled to be paid for the work they have done. If your daughter is owed £17K does this represent a long period of time when she was not paid? The court may have found in your daughters favour but they will not recover the money for her she must do this for herself and there are two problems.

1/ She must locate the employer who has “gone away” according to the post office, in order to take action against them, probably by having bailiffs call they have to be found. To locate her former employers, you do not say if a limited liability company or not, she may find companies house, trade associations, landlord, etc of help.

2/ Does the company or person have any money are they a company/man of straw, there is no point in taking legal action (which has cost involved) if they have nothing and remember if a limited liability company your actions are restricted.

[themas]

Are you sure they actually have "gone away"? Could it be that they realised these were Court papers and chose to do this? Could your daughter go there and check, or ring them & see whether there is an answer?

[derekpara]

The company is based in Jersey, with offices in Germany, Switzerland, the USA and, up until last week, the UK.

The UK office is still listed at Companies House and all other branches of the company are trading.

It is an investment company, and my daughter worked without pay for several months based on promises that big deals were going through overseas and a huge amount would soon come flooding into the system. It never did, of course, and she eventually left because of 'Constructive Dismissal' and took her case to the Employment Tribunal who have found in her favour after no response from the UK office.

[Barmaid]

Your daughter needs to seek legal advice asap with a view to enforcing judgement - potentially through the High Court. Don't freak out at the words "high Court", for enforcement it shouldn't be too expensive, but with companies and holdings without the jurisidiction, she needs professional advice.

[derekpara]

Thank you Barmaid.

D

[CityBuilder]

The inference is that they did not respond to the summons and you got Judgment for this reason. It looks messy to me, one question why did your daughter work for them and not get paid, surely she wanted her wages weekly or monthly, in some respects she's the author of her own misfortunes?

NOW WHAT: If there a limited company forget the debt, your not going to get paid. If he's a sole trader then you have to trace him and discover does he own a house or property you can levy against. Your daughters Court Fees are free if shes unemployed and drawing benefit. If he's a immigrant then again forget it- he simply won't turn up in Court and will ignore all letters to him. The Court will do nothing, its for you to chase him, and the chances of getting paid are zilch.

[derekpara]

Citybuilder.

My daughter worked for nothing because her boss, who is in investments, kept on promising to pay her ' when the Middle East deal ' is closed. He said the money was 'in the pipeline' and should come through at any time, when she would get all her salary and a big bonus. This went on for months.

In the meantime, we, as her parents were subsidizing her, and her mortgage company agreed to give her two months grace followed by reduced payments. Other debts built up, of course, until we couldn't help financially any more and the building society and several others were issuing threats. So she had to leave the job as 'constructive dismissal' and seek a new job, which she got quite quickly because of her skills.

Anyway, the final hearing is in a few days time so we will await the outcome. In the meantime her old company is trading under another name but the judge has made it clear that if the directors are the same ( which they are) they will be held responsible and will have to pay my daughter what she is due, plus costs. But as you say,actually getting the money is another matter.