I won a small claims case in Feb 2026 and at the hearing the defendant requested to pay in 2 installments across 2 months. My initial belief was that regardless of regular 30 day term or installment agreement, the CCJ goes on the public record and on their credit files.
The defendant has since cleared the debt and it has been 30+ days post the last installment’s date but the CCJ isn’t public yet. I checked on TrustOnline and it says this case number doesn’t exist.
Does this mean that the CCJ will never go on their record and they made me go through all this hassle to get my money back after a year of rigorous process and there’s just no accountability for the defendant? Is asking for installments a way to avoid the CCJ going public?
I’m torn between believing that the court is just backlogged and hasn’t registered the CCJ with the public registry vs the defendant has successfully dragged their time to pay what they owe without further consequences knowing this would never go on their credit file. Does anyone have any insight into this?