Compensation

mr big boy

What happens if you don't pay it? I really don't want to pay this fella a penny. 1000 euro i am supposed to pay?

Peregrinus

If he has a judgment against you, he has a variety of enforcement options.

He can summons you to be examined as to your means, with a view to getting an instalment order against you.

He can put the judgment in the hands of the sheriff to execute by seizing property of yours.

If you own property he can register the judgment as a mortgage on the property. This may have no immediate effect but it will be a bugger if and when you want to sell the property. If you're property is already mortgaged to the bank, then the bank will get very worried and, technically, you will probably be in default on your mortgage to the bank.

He can petition to have you declared a bankrupt (or, if you are a company, to have you wound up).

mr big boy

Thank you for that.

Reloc8

This wasn't compensation ordered by a judge on foot of a criminal offence or anything was it ?

mr big boy

Yea i beat some bloke up. I never raised my hand to anyone in my life so don't judge me

Peregrinus

mr big boy wrote: »

Yea i beat some bloke up. I never raised my hand to anyone in my life so don't judge me

We don't have to. The District Court has already done that.

If the compensation has been ordered in connection with a criminal conviction then, oddly enough, you're better off. The compensation order won't be enforced by the victim but by the guards, and they may not have the same driving zeal as he would have. He'll put pressure on them; they'll have a lot of other things to deal with. You may be able to fob them off - no guarantees, though.

However, if this was part of a larger composite sentence - e.g. "three months, suspended if compensation is paid" - then you had better pay the compensation. And the sooner you do it the less grief it will be to you.

ResearchWill

mr big boy wrote: »

Yea i beat some bloke up. I never raised my hand to anyone in my life so don't judge me

Your unlucky with courts a long driving ban a few years ago now this. Well it all depends on what the Court said. If the court has not sentenced you yet and indicated that compensation should be paid and the amount, then if you don't pay it's more than likely a jail sentence. Depending on the court your in you may be able to get bail pending appeal. As another poster said if the court gave a conditional order then if you don't pay the compensation then the sentence will be imposed. But without full knowledge of the order and its exact wording no one here will have a clue of what may happen.

Reloc8

Reloc8 wrote: »

This wasn't compensation ordered by a judge on foot of a criminal offence or anything was it ?

mr big boy wrote: »

Yea i beat some bloke up. I never raised my hand to anyone in my life so don't judge me

I had no intention of doing so.

Just that that being the case you can ignore the advice regarding civil enforcement given earlier in the thread. This is probably not a question of you being pursued for the money this is a question of whether you go to prison or not.

Compensation directed by the courts in criminal cases will be administered in two ways :-

1. Case is put back to a date in the future on the basis of paying compensation. Judge will finalise the sentence or other consequences on that date. If compensation is not paid the defendant/accused could expect a worse outcome than if it is paid. Sometimes a Judge will say explicitly that if compensation is paid they will not impose a custodial sentence but that if it is not paid the defendant/accused will be going to prison. If you don't pay in this scenario you can expect that the Judge will do whatever they threatened to do in the absence of compensation.

2. Case is finalised with a suspended sentence, on the basis that compensation is to be paid within a specified time (happens more frequently in the Circuit Court. Districts Courts usually proceed on the basis of 1. above. If the compensation is not paid within that time period the defendant/accused is in breach of the terms of his/her suspended sentence and the case can be re-entered before the Judge by the prosecution. In general, such cases are in fact re-entered, and in general, unless the accused turns up on the date of re-entry with all the money, he/she can expect that the suspended sentence will be activated (i.e. imposed).

I would disagree strongly with what Peregrinus said about fobbing the gardai off. They tend to take compensation in these cases fairly seriously - for the simple reason that if they don't pursue actively the victim will go up the chain to their superior officers who will send it back down with a rocket.

There is another scenario in which compensation can be ordered against a criminal defendant which has not been addressed. That is pursuant to Section 6(1) of the Criminal Justice Act 1993 permitting a Court to make an Order for compensation in respect of any victim of a crime. Those orders are enforceable in a number of ways at civil law including by way of attaching a person's earnings. The upper limit of such an Order is the court's jurisdication in civil cases for tort (€6.3k plus change in the District Court, €38,000 in the Circuit, unlimited in the Central Criminal Court).

I mention the above for completeness - I suspect you are involved in something covered by points 1 or 2 above.

You should be taking legal advice from a solicitor in respect of this - your liberty is at stake.