Judgments against consumers up 20% in fourth quarter

There was a 20 percent rise in the number of judgments recorded against consumers in the Republic during the fourth quarter of last year, according to figures compiled by Registry Trust.

Consumer judgment numbers rose from 516 in fourth quarter of 2018 to 618 for the same period last year, while the total value grew by 31 percent from €47,606,712 to €62,393,251.

Registry Trust, a group that monitors court judgments, said the average and median values saw increases of nine and ten percent respectively suggesting larger judgments were being registered against consumers compared to the same quarter in 2018.

Judgments against all types of businesses, particularly small businesses, saw even larger increases than consumer judgments. Small business judgments increased 66 percent compared to 46 percent registered against all types of Irish businesses.

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The total and average values of judgments registered against all businesses dropped significantly in the final quarter of 2019 compared to the same quarter of 2018.