Information for party making a claim

1. Upon completion of your claim you should consider the amount of time you need to serve the claim. The claim must usually be served within 30 days, however, the Clerk of the Court may, in certain circumstances, approve service within 60 days. That approval must be obtained at the time of lodging the claim.

2. Once the claim is lodged you must serve the claim on every person/firm/body corporate/public authority or other entity named as a respondent. If there is more than one person who operates a business as a partner each partner nominated as a respondent should be served.

3. Service is to be effected in the manner prescribed in Part 9 of the Industrial Magistrates Courts (General Jurisdiction) Regulations 2005.

4. Once service has been effected you must file an affidavit of service in a prescribed form to prove that the respondent has been served with the claim.

5. If the respondent’s address for service is less than 1000 km from Perth the respondent has 21 days in which to file a response. If the address for service of the respondent is more than 1000 km from Perth then the respondent has 28 days within which to file a response.

6. Upon having filed a response the respondent must serve upon you a sealed copy of the response within 14 days of the lodging of the response.

7. If the respondent does not do those things, that is, lodge and serve a response upon you within the prescribed time, you may make application in the prescribed form for judgment by default. Judgment will not be entered until such time as you make an Application for default judgment supported by affidavit (Forms 6 and 7) which must be served on the respondent.

8. Upon considering your application for default judgment, the Court may enter judgment in your favour in the amount claimed. If default judgment is not ordered the Court may make any other orders as it thinks fit for the further progress and determination of the matter.
   

9. Following the lapse of 21 days after default judgment has been entered you may seek from the Clerk the issue of a certified copy of the Final Order to enable enforcement in another Court, being the Supreme Court of Western Australia.

10. If the respondent lodges and serves a response within the prescribed time, the Clerk will list the matter for pre-trial conference and you will be advised of the time and date of the pre-trial conference by post, email or fax at the address for service that you have nominated.

11. If the matter is not settled at the pre-trial conference the Clerk may make orders to ensure that the matter is ready for hearing and thereafter list the matter for hearing.
    

12. Following the hearing, if you are successful you can enforce the judgment in the same manner as described in paragraph 9 above.