Debt Collection

Debt Collection is the process whereby monies owed to your business are collected. Individuals and Business's that owe you money are called "Debtors".
The amount of the debt owed to you will determine in which Court Proceedings will initiate.
The Following is the Court hierarchy in this Jurisdiction and each of the three Courts has its own proceedings and financial limits.

CourtMinimumMaximum
District €1.00 €6,348.69
Circuit €6,378.70 €38,092.14
High €38,092.15 €38,092.15 onwards

Debt Collection Process

The first step in the recovery process is to formally write to the Debtor demanding payment by a certain date. This is done by way of Solicitors initial letter. This letter is accompanied by a copy of the unpaid invoice and/or bill. In most situations your Business will already have sent the bill to the Debtor.

In some cases, this initial Solicitors letter will be successful and the Debtor will pay the money owed immediately on foot of the Solicitors letter as the Debtor does no want to incur greater costs or face the possibility of going to Court.

However, many cases will proceed further than the initial Solicitors Letter. The Debtor may ignore the initial letter or may deny any monies are owed to your business and in these circumstances we will issue a legal document called a Civil Summons and serve the Document on the Debtor.

This Civil Summons calls upon the Debtor to pay the monies due, to admit the debt and also requires the Debtor to appear in Court on a required date.

If the Debtor responds to the Civil Summons, the matter will go to Trial in Court where the Judge will determine and decide the matter.

If the Debtor refuses to acknowledge the Civil Summons and does not make any response then we will proceed to the next stage of the recovery process called Judgment. At this stage you can obtain Judgment against the Debtor without having to go to Court.

Again, we would contact the Debtor to confirm that Judgment has been obtained against them.

The next step in the process is to enforce the Judgment and this can be a very lengthy process. However there are a number of ways to enforce the Judgment and the following are just some of the avenues open to you. In any event we will go through the different avenues and advise you of your best course of action.

  • To Apply to the relevant Court to compel the Debtor to attend Court so as the Debtor can be examined as to their means so that the Judge may discover how much the Debtor can afford to pay by way of instalments. An Instalment Order will then issue and once a requisite period has passed and the Debtor has not paid part of the debt then an Application will be made to commit the Debtor to Prison for failure to pay.

  • To involve the City or County Sheriff whereby the Sheriff will call to the Debtors premises to try and seize good to the value of the debt.

  • To publish the debt in Oiris Oifigiúil and thereby affecting the Debtors future Credit Rating and their ability to borrow.

  • To Regiister the debt as a Judgment Mortgage against property owned by the Debtor so as the debtor cannot sell or mortgage their property with our first clearing this debt. This debt if registered as a Judgment Mortgage on Title will remain valid for 12 years and will attract interest.

We work on a Collection Commission and charge 20% commission on the monies recovered together with vat @ 21% and the costs of various Court Applications. It is important to remember where the Court Process is successful the costs are also paid by the Debtor.


For further information please contact: us at 023-44211 or e-mail:


Laura Wycherley lwycherley@bandonsolicitors.com.