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WHAT IS A JUDGMENT ?

Where a party wins, the result is confirmed by way of a judgment.

A judgment is a statement or decision made by the Court and it can be in favor of the plaintiff or the defendant.

Examples of the content in a Judgment are as follow :

"The summons having been duly served on the defendant and the defendant having failed to file his defence within the stipulated time, it is hereby ordered that the defendant do pay the plaintiff RM$2,800.00 and RM$200.00 costs."

or

"This action having this day been called on for hearing before His Honour (name) in the presence of the plaintiff, and the defendant not appearing, it is ordered that -

(a) the defendant do pay the plaintiff RM$2,800.00 and RM$200.00 costs;

(b) the defendant's counterclaim be dismissed."

WHAT SHOULD I DO IF THE JUDGMENT DEBTOR DOES NOT COMPLY WITH THE JUDGMENT GIVEN ?

Judgment debtor is the person against whom the judgment or order is made or given. It is generally called the losing party.

In most cases, the judgment debtor will pay the judgment, in order to clear the judgment from the public record.

Where the judgment or order has been duly served on the person against whom the judgment or order is made or given by prepaid registered post by the Court, and that the person against whom the judgment or order is made has not complied with the judgment or order, the party who has obtained the judgment or order may file in the Court a notice to show cause in Form 174.

Form 174 must be served on the judgment debtor by

• personal service or
• prepaid registered post addressed to the defendants last known address.

Under the Form 174, the judgment debtor is required to appear before the Court on a certain date and time to show cause why an order for the enforcement of the judgment or order should not be made against him or her.

Enforcement of judgment or orders consists of a variety of procedures to enforce collection, where the judgment debtor is not paying voluntarily.

For the enforcement of judgments or orders, the Court after examining the judgment debtor may :

• order a writ of seizure and sale to be issued in Form 78 with such modification as may be necessary as to endorsement.
• allow the judgment debtor time to settle the judgment debt, or pay the debt by installments or
• order the judgment debtor to be committed to prison.