The Court Has Decided in a Judgment That the Opposing Party Must Pay You the Debt, but You Still Haven't Received the Money? This is Not an Uncommon Situation. How to Proceed and How Much Will It Cost to Enforce the Judgment by a Bailiff? This Article Briefly Discusses the Process.
When Agreement Is Not Enough
In the judgment, the court rules on the obligations of the parties (for example, the obligation to pay a debt in cases of unpaid invoices). If you were successfully represented by a lawyer in the court case, the court will also typically award you compensation for legal costs.
However, it often happens that the losing party does not fulfill the obligations set out in the judgment within the specified time frame. If you are unable to get the opposing party to comply with agreements and reminders, you can proceed with enforcement. At this stage, we recommend first contacting a lawyer (if you have not already been represented), who can advise you on enforcement and may also attempt to communicate with the debtor.
Judgment with a Clause of Legal Force and Enforceability
If you won the case in court, you must first wait for the so-called legal force. The losing party can appeal the judgment, usually within 15 days of receiving the judgment. Only after no appeal is filed, the obligations set out in the judgment become absolutely binding for the parties, meaning the judgment acquires legal force. The judgment will also specify the deadline by which the obligation must be fulfilled. This may be, for example, within 3 days of the judgment becoming final. If the obligation is not fulfilled within this time, the judgment becomes enforceable. This means the obligations can be enforced using the methods provided by law, including judicial enforcement and execution. We have already briefly written about judicial enforcement, but this article focuses on enforcement through a court-appointed bailiff, which is the more commonly used method for debt collection.
Before you decide to hand the case over to the bailiff, you need to obtain the judgment with the clause of legal force and enforceability. Only on this basis can the bailiff begin the enforcement. You can obtain the judgment with the necessary clauses by submitting a simple request to the court by mail, via a data box, or by delivering it to the court’s registry.
Enforcement Proposal
If you want to have the obligation enforced through a court-appointed bailiff, you must initiate the process with an enforcement proposal. You can submit the proposal to any bailiff. We recommend choosing a bailiff based on the location of the debtor, or their property or assets that could be subject to enforcement.
Along with the enforcement proposal, you must send the bailiff the enforcement title, i.e., the judgment with the clauses of legal force and enforceability. You must also provide both your and the debtor's identification details and specify which obligation is to be enforced and whether any part of this obligation has already been fulfilled. The advantage of enforcement conducted by a court bailiff is that the bailiff will actively search for the debtor's assets and decide on the most suitable way to conduct the enforcement. Enforcement can be done through wage garnishment or the sale of goods, for example.
How Much Does Enforcement Cost?
Enforcement conducted by a court bailiff is not free. In most cases, however, the costs of enforcement (the bailiff's fee, which is usually 15% of the amount collected, and possibly other amounts associated with the actions taken) are paid by the debtor. This also applies to the costs of legal representation if you are represented by a lawyer in the enforcement proceedings, which we recommend. However, if enforcement is stopped due to its non-enforceability, such as when the debtor has no assets, the costs are borne by the entitled party.
We used a publicly available AI translation tool to translate this article from Czech to English. Please contact us if any of the above information is unclear to you.
