Priority Of Writs

The creditor will either choose their own High Court Enforcement Officer (HCEO) or they will ask the High Court to allocate them an HCEO. Once the writ of Fi Fa has been passed to the HCEO, he or she must then lodge it with NICE Sheriffs (National Information Centre for Enforcement run by The Registry Trust). This is an online system and the priority of the writs is determined by the time and date the writ was logged onto the system. If, however, the writs are logged onto NICE Sheriffs at the same time, the priority then falls to the date and time it was physically received by the HCEO. From the creditor’s perspective, it is therefore very important that they (or their solicitor) instruct an HCEO as soon as they get the judgment and writ of execution, so that priority can be established. Obtaining priority prevents any other HCEO or County Court Bailiff from executing another writ (High Court) or warrant (County Court) against that debtor until the priority writ has been fully executed. If a writ is renewed or extended, priority will remain as per the original logging with NICE Sheriffs, as long as it is renewed or extended before it expires. Disclaimer: The statements and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Sheriffs High Court Enforcement Ltd, trading as The Sheriffs Office. Sheriffs High Court Enforcement Ltd does not take any responsibility for the views of the author. The author will not be held responsible for any comments posted by visitors to this site. Please note that this article does not constitute legal advice. The author has used his best endeavours to make this article as accurate and complete as possible, but requests that the reader be aware that the law of England and Wales frequently changes. The author strongly advises the reader to take legal advice before embarking on any enforcement action.