Request a fixed-fee quote →
07503 992804info@dmdcosts.co.ukClient portal
Home / Costs help / Judgment interest calculator
Free tool

Judgment Interest Calculator

Led by Diellza Nika Hyseni and Mentor Nika · Updated 20 October 2026

Work out the interest on a judgment debt in England and Wales: 8% a year from the judgment to the date you choose, in the High Court or the County Court, with part payments, the £5,000 rule, enforcement and the daily rate. From DMD Costs, law costs draftsmen in Westhoughton, Bolton.

  • Free, with no sign-up
  • High Court and County Court
  • Part payments and the daily rate
  • Nothing leaves your browser

Enter the judgment and the sum. The interest, what is outstanding and every period appear as you type.

The judgment
Where damages were assessed after a judgment on liability, the date of the judgment for the assessed sum.
Everything the judgment orders to be paid as a sum, including interest to judgment and any costs it states. Costs to be assessed: use the interest on costs calculator.
When interest runs
Today by default

Leap years

The first divides a year of interest that contains 29 February by 366, following Lomas v Burlington [2015] EWHC 2269 (Ch); the figure by the other method shows if it differs.
Payments

Judgment interest

Nothing yet

The interest builds here as you answer: the total due, the daily rate, and every period with its days, rate and payments.

Nothing you enter leaves your browser. Simple interest; the start day is not counted and the end day is. It is a guide, not legal advice.

Is the judgment carrying costs too? Interest on the costs runs as well. For claimant firms we draw the bill, answer Points of Dispute and negotiate the costs, interest included. The fee is fixed and agreed before any work begins.

Send us the file

The calculator applies the Judgments Act 1838 s.17, the County Courts Act 1984 s.74, the County Courts (Interest on Judgment Debts) Order 1991 as amended and CPR 40.8, as they stood on 20 October 2026. It covers judgments in sterling given from 1 April 1993. It is a guide, not legal advice.

Key points

  • DMD Costs’ judgment interest calculator is a free online tool that works out the interest on a judgment debt in England and Wales at 8% a year, from the date of judgment to the date you choose, with part payments, the daily rate and the County Court rules.
  • It is completely free, with no sign-up, and runs in your browser; nothing you enter is sent to DMD Costs.
  • Every High Court judgment debt carries simple interest at 8% a year until it is paid (Judgments Act 1838 s.17; Judgment Debts (Rate of Interest) Order 1993), and the court cannot change the rate on a judgment in sterling (Horne v Prescot (No 1) Ltd [2019] EWHC 1322 (QB)). Interest more than six years old cannot be recovered (Limitation Act 1980 s.24(2)).
  • A County Court judgment carries interest only if it is for £5,000 or more, or for a qualifying debt under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 (County Courts (Interest on Judgment Debts) Order 1991, arts 1(2) and 2).
  • Interest runs from the date judgment is given unless the court orders otherwise (CPR 40.8). In the County Court a judgment payable by a set date carries interest from that date, and one payable by instalments carries interest on each instalment only from when it falls due (1991 Order art 3).
  • In the County Court a payment goes to the judgment debt first and then the interest (1991 Order art 6(2)); enforcement in the County Court that produces a payment stops the interest (art 4(1)). In the High Court no rule fixes the order: the calculator applies the rule of thumb that a part payment goes to interest first, which the Court of Appeal accepted as fair in Evonik UK Holdings Ltd v HMRC [2025] EWCA Civ 1392, and shows the debt-first total alongside.

How to use the judgment interest calculator

  1. Enter the judgment. Choose the High Court or the County Court, and enter the date of the judgment and the judgment sum.
  2. Set the dates. Interest runs from the judgment unless the court ordered another date, or in the County Court a date for payment; calculate to today or another date.
  3. Add any payments. Each payment since the judgment, with its date. In the High Court, choose how payments are applied.
  4. Tell it anything unusual. In the County Court: a Late Payment Act debt, a consumer credit claim, a suspended possession order, instalments, enforcement or an attachment of earnings order.
  5. Read and copy the figures. The interest, what is outstanding and the daily rate, with every period, ready to copy into a letter or a request to enforce.

The rate: 8%, simple

Every judgment debt in the High Court carries simple interest at 8% a year from the time the rules of court set until it is paid, and the interest can be levied under a writ of execution (Judgments Act 1838 s.17). The rate has been 8% for judgments given since 1 April 1993, and no later order has changed it. The court can postpone or bring forward the start, but it cannot change the rate (Horne v Prescot (No 1) Ltd [2019] EWHC 1322 (QB)); only a judgment in a foreign currency can carry a rate the court sets (Administration of Justice Act 1970 s.44A; in the County Court, 1991 Order art 5(2)). Interest is simple: it does not earn interest itself. Interest more than six years old cannot be recovered (Limitation Act 1980 s.24(2)), and enforcing a judgment more than six years old needs the court’s permission (CPR 83.2(3)(a)).

County Court judgments

In the County Court interest is governed by section 74 of the County Courts Act 1984 and the County Courts (Interest on Judgment Debts) Order 1991, at the same 8%. Only a judgment for £5,000 or more, or for a qualifying debt under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998, carries it; on the usual commentary view, costs ordered as a sum in the same judgment count towards the £5,000. The Order sets its own exceptions:

  • no interest on a judgment under a regulated consumer credit agreement, or on a suspended possession order for a landlord or mortgagee of a dwelling (art 2(3));
  • a judgment payable by a set date carries interest from that date, and one payable by instalments carries interest on each instalment only from when it falls due (art 3);
  • enforcement in the County Court that produces any payment stops the interest from when it was taken, though a charging order does not (art 4(1) and (2));
  • no interest runs while an attachment of earnings order or an administration order is in force (art 4(3)), and attachment of earnings proceedings that produce a payment stop it for good (art 4(1));
  • payments go to the judgment debt first and then the interest (art 6(2)).

Part payments and the daily rate

The calculator works period by period, between every date on which something changes: a payment, a stop or the anniversary of the start. Interest is the unpaid debt × 8% × the days ÷ the days in the year, counting the end day but not the start day; a year of interest that contains 29 February is divided by 366 (Lomas v Burlington Loan Management Ltd [2015] EWHC 2269 (Ch)), and the figure on a 365-day year shows beside it where it differs. In the High Court no rule fixes how a part payment is applied: the calculator applies the rule of thumb that it goes to interest first, which the Court of Appeal accepted as fair in Evonik UK Holdings Ltd v HMRC [2025] EWCA Civ 1392, and shows the total if it went to the debt first. (The interest on costs calculator deducts payments on account from the costs, because that is the usual practice for them.)

Sources

Frequently asked questions

Yes. It is completely free, with no sign-up, no paywall and no limit. It runs in your browser, and nothing you type is sent to DMD Costs. It is a guide, not legal advice.
8% a year, simple. It has been 8% for judgments given since 1 April 1993 (Judgment Debts (Rate of Interest) Order 1993), under section 17 of the Judgments Act 1838 in the High Court and the County Courts (Interest on Judgment Debts) Order 1991 in the County Court. The court can change when interest starts, but not the rate on a judgment in sterling (Horne v Prescot (No 1) Ltd [2019] EWHC 1322 (QB)). On a judgment in a foreign currency the court may set the rate (Administration of Justice Act 1970 s.44A; in the County Court, 1991 Order art 5(2)).
From the date judgment is given, unless a rule, a practice direction or the court provides otherwise (CPR 40.8(1)). In the County Court a judgment that need not be paid until a set date carries interest from that date (1991 Order art 3(a)), and where the amount is decided later, interest runs from that later date (art 2(2)). Since 27 May 2019 the County Court, like the High Court, can order interest to run from another date, including an earlier one.
Only if the judgment is for £5,000 or more, or for a qualifying debt under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998, whatever the amount (1991 Order arts 1(2) and 2). None is payable on a judgment under a regulated consumer credit agreement or on a suspended possession order for a landlord or mortgagee of a dwelling (art 2(3)). Once a judgment qualifies, interest runs on whatever remains unpaid, even after it falls below £5,000.
As simple interest: the unpaid judgment debt × 8% ÷ 365 × the number of days, not counting the day interest starts but counting the end day. A year of interest that contains 29 February is divided by 366, so a full year always earns exactly 8% (Lomas v Burlington Loan Management Ltd [2015] EWHC 2269 (Ch)). Interest does not earn interest. On £10,000, that is about £2.19 a day.
In the County Court, to the judgment debt first and then to the interest (1991 Order art 6(2)). In the High Court no rule fixes the order. The Court of Appeal accepted as fair the rule of thumb that a part payment of a debt carrying simple interest goes to interest first (Evonik UK Holdings Ltd v HMRC [2025] EWCA Civ 1392 [61]), though not in a case about judgment interest. The calculator applies it by default and shows the debt-first total alongside.
In the County Court, yes, if the enforcement proceedings in the County Court produce any payment: the judgment debt stops carrying interest from when they were taken. Enforcement that produces nothing does not count, and a charging order does not stop interest. Attachment of earnings is County Court enforcement too: if it produces a payment, interest stops for good from when the proceedings were taken (art 4(1)). No interest runs while an attachment of earnings order or an administration order is in force (art 4(3)). In the High Court, interest runs until the judgment is paid.
Yes, on the same rules: at 8% from the date the judgment is entered or, where the amount is decided later, from the date it is decided, and in the County Court only if it is for £5,000 or more or for a Late Payment Act qualifying debt. A default judgment for a specified sum can also include the interest claimed up to judgment if the particulars of claim gave the details CPR 16.4 requires, any interest under section 35A of the Senior Courts Act 1981 or section 69 of the County Courts Act 1984 is claimed at no more than the judgment rate, and the request for judgment calculates the interest to its date (CPR 12.7).
An order for costs carries interest at 8% from the date of the order, even before the costs are assessed. Use our free interest on costs calculator, which also deals with Part 36 acceptance, payments on account and a late start to detailed assessment.
During a breathing space or mental health crisis moratorium, a creditor must not require an individual debtor to pay interest that accrues on a moratorium debt during the moratorium (Debt Respite Scheme Regulations 2020, reg 7(6)(a)), and even after it ends the creditor cannot require interest that accrued during it (reg 7(10)(a)). The calculator does not model it.
Six years. No arrears of interest on a judgment debt can be recovered more than six years after they fell due (Limitation Act 1980 s.24(2)), and enforcing a judgment more than six years old needs the court’s permission (CPR 83.2(3)(a)). Where interest has run for longer, the calculator shows how much accrued in the last six years.

Judgment for damages, and costs to recover?

We work for claimant solicitor firms: we draw the bill, answer Points of Dispute and negotiate the costs to settlement, interest included. The fee is fixed and agreed before any work begins.

Request a fixed-fee quote →More free tools