It is quite frustrating when money is owed to you or your company and goes unpaid whether money is owed by way of money lent, a commercial transaction, sale of goods and services or as a result of property damage.
If there has been communication between you and the debtor and the debt remains unrecoverable, issuing a Letter of Demand is a great way to alert the debtor that you are serious about the debt. It is useful to have a lawyer assist you in preparing the Letter of Demand on the firm’s letterhead as it shows you are serious about recovering the debt. The debtor will hopefully contact you or the lawyers and attend to payment of the outstanding amount. Should there not be a response from the debtor and the debt is under $10,000, an option is to commence proceedings in the Small Claims Tribunal of the Local Court.
The initial step is to issue a Statement of Claim. Should the matter be defended, a Pre-Trial Review (PTR) date will be listed. Both parties attend Court and appear before the Registrar. At the PTR, the Registrar will set the matter down for an Assessment Hearing and the matter will then be heard before the Magistrate. Matters are usually listed two months from the date of the PTR unless requested by the parties otherwise. Evidence by way of written statements is to be filed with the Court and served on the other party two weeks prior to the hearing date. At the hearing, the Magistrate will listen to submissions from both parties and make his determination on the same day.
Parties can attempt to resolve the matter between them at any stage throughout the court process even leading up to the date of the hearing.
The overriding purpose of matters heard in the Local Court is to facilitate the just, quick and cheap resolution of the real issues of the proceedings.
For small business and personal dealings debt recovery. Contact Pk Simpson today.