22/01/2026

The short answer is yes. If you are in England or Wales, it is possible to recover money owed to you by a debtor in Scotland and Northern Ireland despite them being outside the jurisdiction of our courts.

It’s a little more complicated to enforce judgments in Scotland and Northern Ireland, but it can be done and you shouldn’t be deterred from chasing down money you are owed.

What are the steps in recovering money from a debtor in Scotland or Northern Ireland?

As with all debt recovery matters, the first step is to gather your evidence, collecting all invoices, contract documents, purchase orders, delivery notes, emails related to the money owed.

Then you, or your legal adviser on your behalf, should send a formal letter called a pre-action protocol letter to your debtor setting out your claim and enclosing all your documents in support of your claim. Payment should be demanded by a stated deadline. If the debtor is an individual, they should be allowed 30 days from the date of your letter to respond. If the debtor is a company, you should allow them 14 days from the date of your letter to respond. It gives the debtor the opportunity to admit or dispute the debt or request additional information.

If agreement cannot be reached following this process and mediation has been exhausted, your debt recovery solicitor can begin court proceedings.

All court papers, including a claim form and particulars of claim, are sent to the Civil National Business Centre for issuing along with a completed form 510.

Once the case has been issued by the court, all papers will be returned for you to effect service upon the debtor. This means you will need to employ a process server in Northern Ireland or Scotland, so service can be effected upon them. Once service has been undertaken, you will receive a certificate of service from your process server which needs to be lodged with the court.

You will then need to wait approximately 14 days from the date of service before you can apply to the court for judgment.

Once judgment has been entered by the courts, this will need to be transferred to the courts of Northern Ireland or Scotland for registration and then enforcement.

Need help to recover money from a debtor in Scotland or Northern Ireland?

It is certainly possible to recover money from debtors in Scotland and Northern Ireland and we would encourage you not to be put off by the jurisdictional complexities.

With the help of an experienced debt recovery expert, you can (and should) take action to recover the money that you are owed.

For advice on recovering money from a debtor in Scotland or Northern Ireland, please contact our Stoke-on-Trent solicitors on 01782 205000, our Altrincham solicitors on 0161 929 8494 or email enquiry@beswicks.com.