Interest on Debts
and Damages (Jersey) Law 1996
A LAW to enable the Royal Court and
the Petty Debts Court to award interest in any proceedings for the recovery of
any debt or damages
Commencement
[see
endnotes]
1 Interpretation
In this Law –
“Court” means the Royal Court or the Petty Debts Court,
as the case may be;
“defendant” means the person from whom the plaintiff
seeks the debt or damages;
“judgment debt” includes any sum of money ordered to be
paid by a Court on giving judgment including any costs, charges or expenses;
“plaintiff” means the person seeking the debt or
damages.
2 Interest
(1) Subject to paragraph (4),
in any proceedings, whenever instituted, for the recovery of any debt or
damages, the Court may, if it thinks fit, order that there shall be included in
the sum for which judgment is given simple interest at such rate as it thinks
fit on the whole or any part of the debt or damages in respect of which
judgment is given, or payment is made before judgment, for the whole or any part
of the period between the date on which the cause of action arose
and –
(a) in
the case of any sum paid before judgment, the date of the payment; and
(b) in
the case of a sum for which judgment is given, the date of the judgment.
(2) Subject to paragraph (4),
every judgment debt shall carry simple interest at such rate as the Court
thinks fit for the whole or any part of the period from the date of the
judgment until such later date, not being a date later than the date on which
the judgment is satisfied, as the Court shall think fit and payment of such
interest shall be enforceable by the Viscount as if it is a part of the
judgment debt without the necessity for any further action or proceedings by
the plaintiff.
(3) Subject to paragraph (4),
where –
(a) there
are proceedings (whenever instituted) before the Court for the recovery of a
debt or damages; and
(b) the
defendant pays the whole debt or damages to the plaintiff (otherwise than in
pursuance of a judgment in the proceedings),
the Court may, if it thinks fit, order that the defendant pay the
plaintiff simple interest at such rate as it thinks fit on all or any part of
the debt or damages for all or any part of the period between the date when the
cause of action arose and the date of the payment.
(4) Interest shall
not –
(a) be
ordered in respect of a debt under paragraph (1) or (3); or
(b) run
in respect of a judgment debt under paragraph (2),
for a period during which, for whatever reason –
(i) in
the case of paragraph (a), interest on the debt already runs;
(ii) in
the case of paragraph (b), interest on the sum representing the judgment
debt already runs.
(5) Interest under this Article
may be calculated at different rates in respect of different periods.
(6) In determining whether
an amount exceeds the limit specified in the Loi (1891) sur la Cour pour
le recouvrement de menues dettes no account shall be taken of the provisions of
this Article or of anything done under it.
3 Citation
This Law may be cited as the Interest on Debts and Damages (Jersey)
Law 1996.