The likely cause is that creditors are seeking to limit their exposure to bad debts through staking their claims to available properties.

According to Registry Trust chairman, Malcolm Hurlston: "Despite record levels of unsecured borrowing and over-indebtedness, judgments have declined steadily from their peak in the early 1990s. It might seem puzzling, therefore, that judgments are increasing at precisely the time that growth in outstanding unsecured debt is levelling off - it was a marginal one percent in 2006. Judgments, however, 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.

“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 home-owners who may have borrowed too heavily on top of rising interest rates and escalating house prices."

Consumer judgments are included in Registry Trust s annual statistics for 2006 which were published today (March 28). The main findings are:

- Consumer judgments increased by 33 percent to 843, 853 in 2006 from 635,222 in 2005;
- Commercial judgments increased by six percent to 178,313 in 2006;
- In addition to credit-related judgments, there were around 82,963 DVLA judgments in 2006 and 169, 686 water judgments;
- Administration orders increased by 92 percent to 5,710 in 2006;
- Searches of the Register increased by 35 percent to 36,809, half of them conducted via the internet.

RTL statistics include information from England and Wales, Scotland, N Ireland, Jersey, Isle of Man and Ireland.