Are you owed money that you would like to collect? If so, you can take legal action to recover it with Kyrimis Lawyers. In certain situations, you can also recover your legal costs related to recovery proceedings.
Kyrimis Lawyers can assist you with:
- Preparing a notice of intention to sue – this needs to be legally admissible and so must include: details of the debt, a demand that payment be made by a certain date; and a warning that court action will be pursued if payment is not received by this date.
- Preparing and filing a claim – used to demand either payment or defence of the matter within 21 days (after the claim is served); and with
- Entering judgment against the debtor (when no action is taken within 21 days of serving the claim).
Once Judgment is entered, a number of procedures are available to enforce it. Kyrimis Lawyers can assist you with:
- Warrants of sale (seizure of goods or land to sell in order to repay the debt)
- Investigation summonses (requiring the debtor to attend court to explain how they will satisfy the judgement)
- Garnishee orders (whereby the court can order a third party to pay money to a creditor instead of a debtor).
- Bankruptcy If an individual is declared bankrupt by the Courts, a Trustee is appointed to take control of the insolvent person’s estate in order to turn the assets into cash to distribute equally among unsecured creditors (those who do not hold security for payment of the debt).
Secured creditors may commence debt recovery by disposing of the asset securing the loan (e.g. a bank would do this if mortgage payments are not made on a house).
Bankruptcy proceedings are handled in either the Federal Court or the Federal Circuit Court, depending on the complexity.
Insolvency
When a company is declared insolvent the court has the power to ‘wind it up’ and appoint a liquidator, whose responsibility is to turn the assets into cash and distribute it in the order set out in the Corporations Act. The creditor and the liquidator firstly recover their costs, followed by certain entitlements to employees. The balance is distributed among unsecured creditors.
Winding up proceedings are handled in either the Supreme Court or the Federal Court. Kyrimis Lawyers can assist you by issuing a statutory demand and (if the statutory demand is not satisfied) by filing an originating process. If the court is satisfied that the company is trading insolvent, it can then appoint a liquidator.