If a court has imposed a certain obligation on a party in a decision, the decision has become legally valid and enforceable, and such party does not voluntarily fulfill its obligation, enforcement of the decision, i.e. compulsory fulfilment of the obligation against the will of the obliged party, may be requested. The application for enforcement may be filed either with the court or with the chosen bailiff.

The court may impose an obligation on the party to the proceedings (e.g. to pay a certain amount to the other party). It shall also set a time limit for doing so, which is normally three days from the legal force of the decision. If the party fails to comply with the obligation within the specified time limit, the party entitled may also seek to enforce the obligation against the party's will. This is called enforcement of the decision.

The court itself may enforce the decision. In such a case, a petition for enforcement must be filed with the locally competent district court, which will order enforcement. However, this method of enforcement is not used much in practice. The court does not actively pursue the debtor's assets from which satisfaction could be obtained. Such assets must be identified by the creditor. At the same time, the court cannot carry out several methods of enforcement at the same time - thus, if it is going to make deductions from wages, it cannot order the sale of movable property at the same time. However, the advantage is that the creditor is not obliged to pay anything.

The second option is recovery through a bailiff. The bailiff himself checks the debtor's assets and income and all activity of the beneficiary is purely voluntary. At the same time, several financial sources (e.g. income from employment and, in addition, movable and immovable property) may be affected simultaneously. The disadvantage is that the costs of the execution and the executor's fee are recovered before the payment due (i.e. the executor gets the money first and then the beneficiary). In the event of an unsuccessful execution, the beneficiary runs the risk of being obliged to pay the costs of the execution himself.