Enforcing Foreign Judgments In The British Virgin Islands

Overview

Before enforcing a foreign judgment in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), it is important to consider whether the Defendant has assets within the jurisdiction against which a Claimant can enforce. There is little point in enforcing a foreign judgment if the Defendant does not have assets within the jurisdiction or is impecunious.

If there are assets in the BVI, the procedure for enforcement varies depending upon which country issued the originating judgment. There are two alternate options as follows:

The BVI has a simplified registration procedure for recognition of judgments obtained from the UK, New South Wales (Australia), Belize, Guyana, Nigeria and certain designated Caribbean territories. Upon registration, such foreign judgment may be enforced by the BVI High Court without re-examination of the merits of the case. Foreign judgments from territories outside of the designated list are governed by case law, which also provides a straightforward alternative means of enforcement. Simplified procedure

The simplified registration procedure applies to judgments of the High Court of England and Wales, the Court of Session in Scotland, and the Courts of Northern Ireland, New South Wales (Australia), the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Belize, Guyana, Grenada, Jamaica, Nigeria, St Lucia, St Vincent and Trinidad & Tobago.

The governing legislation is the Reciprocal Enforcement of Judgments Act (Cap 65) 1922 (the "1922 Act").

Brief reference should also be made to the Foreign Judgments (Reciprocal Enforcement) Act (Cap 27) 1964 (the "1964 Act"). It is considered that the 1964 Act did not properly designate territories as required under the Act, and therefore has no effect. For this reason, the 1964 Act is ignored for the remainder of this note.

In order to enforce a judgment under the 1922 Act, it is necessary to first "register" the judgment. There are four principle requirements for recognition and "registration" of a judgment under the 1922 Act:

The judgment or order must have been given by a Court in civil proceedings, and must be final and conclusive and for a fixed judgment sum, i.e. it must order a definite and fixed sum payable1; The application must be made within 12 months of the judgment being handed down (or such longer period as the Court may allow)2; The judgment debtor must not have appealed the judgment, or have the right or have expressed an intention to appeal3; It must be "just and convenient" that the judgment should be...