How To Enforce A Foreign Judgment In Ireland

When you obtain a foreign judgment against an Irish debtor you will invariably want to enforce that judgment against the assets of the debtor in Ireland, if he has any.

There is an important distinction to be made at the outset though-if your judgment was obtained in an EU country then there is a procedure to have your judgment recognised and enforced in Ireland but if your judgment was obtained against an Irish debtor in a non EU country, then there is no way of having that judgment recognised in Ireland.

EU Judgments

If your judgment is an EU obtained judgment then the Brussels I regulation provides that your judgment will be recoginsed in all EU member states. To enforce it though you will need to go through a simple procedure involving making an application to the Master of the High Court in Ireland for a Declaration of Enforcability. This is a pretty straight forward procedure and once you have obtained your Declaration then your foreign judgment will have the same effect and weight as if it had been obtained in the High Court in Ireland.

Read this post about enforcing EU judgments in Ireland.

Non EU Judgments

If your judgment was obtained in a non EU country then to enforce it you will need to go through the Summary Summons procedure of the High Court in Ireland as if it was a debt incurred in Ireland.

For a more detailed look at enforcing non EU judgements, for example the United States, read this.

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