Alongside the legal merits, there are three practical questions worth working through before a civil claim is filed. They are what you can prove, whether the other side can pay, and whether the cost of finding out is proportionate to what is at stake.
What can you prove?
The merits of a claim and the evidence for it are different things, and both matter. A claim can be well founded in law and still turn on what can be put before a court: contracts, invoices, emails, messages, photographs, bank records, and the people who saw or heard what is in dispute. Legal Aid NSW suggests asking what evidence you have as one of the first questions before making a claim.
Collect what you have and keep it together, including the parts that do not help you.
Can they pay?
A money judgment is an order to pay a sum. It is not the sum. Enforcing one is a further step with its own cost, and if the other side has no assets, cannot be found, or is a company that has stopped trading, that step may return less than it costs. Whether a judgment could actually be recovered is worth asking at the start rather than after a hearing.
Is it proportionate?
The cost and the time of running a claim can exceed what is in dispute. That does not make the claim wrong; it makes it a commercial decision as well as a legal one, and the two answers can differ. Ask what each step costs before you take it, and ask what recovering costs would realistically look like if you succeed.
And there is a clock
Civil claims in New South Wales are subject to time limits, and they are not all the same limit. Which one applies depends on the kind of claim and on when the cause of action arose, and some bodies apply their own separate limits. Our guide to limitation periods in New South Wales sets out where those come from. Do not work a deadline out from a website, including this one. If you think a date may be close, say so at the very start.
Where to read next
What a letter of demand should and should not say covers writing to the other side before proceedings. Which court hears your claim covers where a claim goes if it is filed.
Official sources
- Legal Aid NSW — Making a claim — what to think about before starting a civil claim, including the evidence you have, what it will cost and whether you would be able to recover.
- Limitation Act 1969 (NSW), NSW legislation — the time limits that apply under that Act.
- Local Court of New South Wales — Civil jurisdiction — what the Local Court hears and how a civil claim is started there.
- District Court of New South Wales — Jurisdiction — the civil claims the District Court hears.
- NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal — Consumer claims — the consumer claims NCAT hears, and the time limits it applies.