An amazing, 843,853 people had County Court Judgments registered against them, an increase of a third compared on the previous year and the second consecutive year that the figure has grown.

According to the Registry Trust, the organisation that tracks the figures on behalf of the Lord Chancellor's office, lenders are going to the courts at an earlier stage of the process of debt recovery to ensure they have a claim on the borrower's property.

County Court Judgments are the first step in a legal process that can lead to bailiffs at your door, able to take goods to the value of the debt. Also, it is the first step for a lender to apply for a charging order, which converts any unsecured debt into a secured one, enabling it to make a recoup what is owed from the value of the borrower's property.

County Court Judgments are of course best avoided altogether if possible, and for homeowners with a number of debts which are proving difficult to stay on top of and are in danger of acquiring County Court Judgments as a result, an oft used and useful tool is to consolidate a number of smaller, unsecured loans by obtaining a utilising the equity in their property to secure a lower interest rate, which can serve to lower the monthly cost of servicing their debts, especially when combined with a longer repayment period.

County Court Judgments stays on a person's credit record for six years unless they pay it off in full within a month of being issued. The CCJ will remain on file, even if the debt is paid within the six years, but will be marked as 'satisfied'.

Even for borrowers who already have County Court Judgments, there are still solutions available to get their finances back on track. There are a number of lenders who specialise in offering debt consolidation loans to borrowers with , and who will lend to borrowers with not only County Court Judgments, but also mortgage arrears and even to borrowers in an IVA or bankruptcy.

Lenders have had their bad debt levels soar in the last few years as an increasing number of consumers avail themselves of less stringent bankruptcy laws and Individual Voluntary Arrangements. The latest set of financial figures from the banks show that Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland (owners of NatWest), HSBC and Lloyds TSB collectively wrote off ?11.6bn in bad debts from customers last year.

Malcolm Hurlston, Registry Trust chairman said: ?Judgments are an important item in creditors' armoury, particularly for dealing with people who are 'won't pays' rather than 'can't pays' and the sharp rise indicates that it is creditor behaviour that is changing.?

He continued: ?Creditors are seeking judgments as the necessary first step to obtaining charging orders against debtors' properties, thus securing their share in any equity. It is a further warning to homeowners who may have borrowed too heavily on top of rising interest rates and escalating house prices.?