JERSEY Law and Practice Contributed by: Amy Benest, William Redgrave, Jared Dann and Lynne Gregory, Baker & Partners
(the Royal Court’s Executive Officer) to enforce its terms. A fee scale is charged by the Viscount’s Department of up to GBP240. When instructing the Viscount, the judgment creditor will usually inform the Viscount if the creditor is aware of any assets owned by the debtor. The Viscount has the power to arrest, uplift and sell the debtor’s movable property (such as goods, money, investments and wages). A judgment creditor may seek to register the judgment debt against Jersey immovable property owned by the debtor as a “judicial hypothec” and thereby have the debt secured against an asset of the debtor. There - after the creditor may apply to enforce their security by way of désastre or dégrèvement insolvency pro - cedures. A judgment creditor may also apply to place a caveat against the debtor’s immovable property which would prevent any sale. Caveats usually last for six months but may be renewed. Indirect Enforcement If further active steps are required, a judgment creditor might consider the following steps: • obtaining injunctive relief to preserve the asset pending enforcement if there is a risk of dissipation of assets; • applying for an arrêt entre mains as an interim arrest of or distraint on the debtor’s goods held by a third party in Jersey. If granted, the order affords to the creditor a proprietary interest in and security over the assets in question for the discharge of the debt; and • instigating a Pauline action to set aside a transfer effected by a debtor to defraud their creditors. Insolvency Proceedings The most aggressive response available to a judgment creditor is to institute insolvency proceedings such as the following. • Creditors’ winding up (available against a compa - ny) – as a first step, the creditor will issue a statu - tory demand in the required form. The judgment
debt must be a liquidated sum of over GBP3,000. Should the 21-day time period pass without the debt being paid, the creditor may apply to the Royal Court for a liquidator of the debtor company to be appointed. • Désastre – a creditor of an individual or a company may apply for the property of the debtor to be vested in the Viscount. The debtor must either be a Jersey entity or otherwise carry out business in Jersey, own property there or be ordinarily resident there. The Viscount will then call upon the debtors’ creditors to submit their claims and the debtor’s assets will be distributed amongst the creditors in accordance with a statutory regime. • Corporate administration – creditors may, as of June 2026, now seek an order from the Royal Court to place a debtor company into administra - tion. Due to the different implications of each insolvency regime, a creditor should carefully consider which route is most appropriate. A creditor should care - fully consider what their likely recovery would be in an insolvency of the debtor, particularly if the debt is unsecured. It will therefore be necessary to gather as much information as possible before making a deci - sion to implement insolvency proceedings. One factor to consider is the cost, as the Viscount (appointed to administer a désastre ) may claim up to 10% of the assets collected, plus 2.5% of the assets paid out. Another is control: a creditor is able to choose a liquidator (who would be appointed to administer a creditors’ winding up) to be put forward for appointment by the Court. Both liquidators and the Viscount have the ability to investigate and apply to the court to challenge certain transactions entered into by a debtor. 2.3 Costs and Time Taken to Enforce Domestic Judgments The costs and length of time to enforce a domes - tic judgment will depend upon a number of factors including whether the defendant co-operates with the Viscount or whether there is a dispute as to the own - ership of an asset against which the creditor seeks to enforce.
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