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I filed a Simple Procedure against a company several months ago, who later paid me. I recently received an email from someone who works for that company, see below:

Dear [Medulla Oblongata],

I refer to the Decree judgement you obtained against [Company] in [Date], which was paid including interest by [Company] in [Later Date].

Would you be willing to sign the attached letter and return to me so that [Company] can have the judgement marked as 'satisfied' on the register of judgements held by the Registry Trust?

If you are willing to help with this, I look forward to receiving the signed letter as soon as possible.

Yours sincerely,

[Company Employee]

They want me to sign a letter saying that they paid me the right sum, and to "show the Decree as satisfied on the Register." The letter is addressed to Registry Trust Limited.

Can someone explain further what this letter is for and why I should sign it? What is the purpose of the Registry Trust and what will they do with the letter?

ohwilleke
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Medulla Oblongata
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1 Answers1

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Registry Trust is a company that holds details of certain court judgments. This is mainly so that interested parties can look up people or companies and find out whether they have had money judgments made against them in the past, and whether those are still outstanding.

The reason this is done by a private company, rather than a branch of the court administration, is because the Thatcher government privatized the function in the 1980s. Before then, the English register originated in the County Courts Act 1852, which in its section 18 empowered the government to create "a registry of every judgment entered in the county courts for the sum of ten pounds and upwards", and charge members of the public wishing to consult it. The system expanded to all sorts of other judgments and is currently run under the Courts Act 2003, section 98, which gives the Lord Chancellor the power to designate a company to fulfil the function.

Scottish decrees are now also held, but the system is a bit different in terms of what information is kept and how it is administered. The main salient difference for this letter is that Registry Trust does not know whether the money has been paid, whereas for an English judgment the court will tell them. Accordingly, the defender company in this question would like the publicly-available record to show that they have paid, for their own reputational reasons, and are hoping that you will certify that this has happened. Naturally, Registry Trust will not just take their own word for it, and their guidance says:

We require a receipt or an original letter from the Pursuer on letter headed paper (where possible) which states the:

  • The defenders name and address the decree was recorded against
  • Case number
  • Court name
  • Amount of decree
  • Date paid in full
alexg
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