THE number of court judgements regarding business debts surged in the first half of the year, research has shown. Registry Trust, which collects judgment information from jurisdictions across the British Isles and Ireland, found 2,503 judgments were recorded against businesses in Scotland in the first six months of 2015, up 29 per cent, from around 1,940, in the first half of 2014. The total value of business judgments was £20m, nearly three times more than the total of around £6.8m recorded in the same period last time. Malcolm Hurlston, chairman of Registry Trust, said: "These are bad figures amounting to a cloud over the Scottish economy.”