The number of county court judgments (CCJs) registered against consumers reached new heights this year, latest figures show.

According to figures published today, during the first three months of 2018 there were 305,877 judgments registered, more than double the 150,622 registered during the same period in 2005 when current records for these types of judgments began.

The latest figure is also 2% up on the first quarter of last year. The number of adverse CCJs has been steadily rising for the past five years.

Today’s figures are published by the Registry Trust through its Registrar of Judgments, Orders and Fines in England and Wales. The registry verifies and publishes judgment information from jurisdictions across the British Isles and Ireland.

A four-year trend whereby the number of CCJs against businesses had consistently fallen was bucked by a year-on-year rise of 7% in succesful claims against businesses. However, according to the Registry Trust those statistics are  skewed by the presence (on April 20) of 2,125 judgments against airline easyJet.

In the High Court, 44 judgments were registered against consumers in the first quarter while 20 judgments were issued against businesses, six more than during the same quarter of the previous year.

The number of tribunal awards registered rose significantly compared to last year. There were 67 business and consumer tribunal awards, up 21 on last year’s figures; 37 businesses tribunal awards, up from 30; and 30 consumer tribunal awards, down 9 on last year.