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Defending a matter
If you have been served with a Complaint, you may wish to defend the claim. You do this by filing a Notice of Defence with the court within 21 days from the date you received the complaint (service date). You must also send/deliver a copy to the plaintiff or their lawyer.
Before you defend any claim, you should seek advice from a lawyer regarding your case.
You are obliged to comply with the requirements of the Civil Procedure Act, and file certifications with your Notice of Defence. Please refer to the Certifications page for further details.
Once your Notice of Defence (Form 8A) has been filed the Court will send you a hearing notice. This notice will give you a time and date to attend court, and will advise you of the type of hearing that will be held.
How to fill in the Defence
Your Defence must be set out in numbered paragraphs and respond to each paragraph in the statement of claim section of the complaint. You must state whether you are denying, admitting or not admitting each paragraph.
If you Deny a fact you must give reasons for denying the fact and outline your version or what you say is the case.
If you Admit a fact you do not need to give any further details in relation to that paragraph.
If you do not admit you cannot produce any evidence contrary to the Plaintiff’s statement at the hearing unless the plaintiff provides such evidence first.
If you do not indicate that you deny/admit or not admit an allegation, it is deemed by the Court to be admitted.
After you have addressed all the paragraphs in the Complaint you then need to state anything that would make the plaintiff’s claim unable to proceed (e.g. The proceedings arose in another state). You also need to state anything that might take the plaintiff by surprise or facts that are not addressed in the statement of claim.
If your defence arises by or under any act you need to state the act and which provision you will rely upon.
This should be addressed in the first 5 paragraphs of the Notice of Defence. If there are further allegations in the statement of claim you need to attach further pages and address those.