What is a Warrant of Execution?
A Warrant is a court issued document that has the potential for seizing of assets. This process involves a court appointed bailiff attending the home of the debtor to discuss payment of the debt.
What is a Garnishee?
A Garnishee is an instruction from the court to a paymaster to deduct regular instalments from the debtor’s PAYG wage and to pay these to the Court. Where the debtor is known to work on a contract basis, a Money Due Garnishee may be issued ordering the party for whom the debtor contracts to pay all money owed, (up to the amount of the debt) directly to the court.
What is a Judgment?
If a Claim is served and the other person doesn’t respond to the court (eg. lodge a defence), the plaintiff (the person or company owed the money) can ask the court to issue a ‘Default Judgment’. This Judgment means the court agrees the debt is owed and allows the plaintiff to take steps to collect the debt with the court’s approval.
What is a Defence?
A Defence is the defendant’s (also known as the debtor, the person or business who owes the money) formal notice to the court that they do not accept the claim for money. For claims under $15,000, defended matters are typically transferred to the Small Claims Division of the Magistrates Court (Civil Division), while larger claims remain in the Magistrates Court’s regular jurisdiction.
In most cases, claims proceed to judgment without a defence being filed.
Your Account Manager will advise you if a defence has been lodged and the next steps.
What is a Claim?
A claim is a formal document issued by the court to the Defendant (the debtor) to answer a demand taken by the Claimant (The person who is owed the money). Upon receipt of the Claim, the defendant has 21 days to lodge a defence.
How does legal action help?
If the debtor doesn’t cooperate or won’t agree to a reasonable payment plan, TCS might suggest taking legal action if we think it will help recover the debt. TCS will inform you about the costs involved, and when the debtor pays the debt, they also repay any recoverable costs like legal fees. However, there are many times when we advise against legal action, especially if […]
How will TCS collect the debt?
At the outset of the debt collection process, we implement a focused and comprehensive program of timely correspondence and telephone contacts to encourage the debtor to settle the account in full. If needed, we work with the debtor to establish a suitable payment arrangement. Our goal is to resolve the matter […]
Will I lose my customer’s goodwill by lodging a debt?
Using TCS will not harm your chances of losing a customer forever. We understand business and know the value of your reputation and brand. The objective for many of our clients is to recover debts as fast as possible while also retaining the potential for their client to continue to trade with them in the future.
Should I use my solicitor instead?
Some of our clients question whether they should use their solicitor to collect money. While legal action can be an important part of debt collection, it should be used as a last resort. The objective is to recover money quickly and efficiently.
How do I stay informed?
The easiest way to stay informed is by accessing our easy to use client website portal, this is available to you 24/7.
Your Account Manager will also keep you up to date via regular reports.
If you have any questions on accounts lodged with us, please reach out to your Account Manager or [email protected] and we would be more than happy to help.