Practice area
Debt Recovery & Civil EnforcementDebt recovery and civil enforcement
Debt recovery is high-volume work where a wrong debtor, stale claim or wrong court is costly to undo. Software lines up the contract, ledger and a draft; the lawyer decides if the debt is due, in time and in the right forum.
Key facts
- Tasks covered
- 14
- Tasks with a step-by-step checklist
- 4
- Local differences
- 2 jurisdictions where this area changes
Jurisdiction
Tasks
GreenLawyer reviewYellowClose supervisionRedLawyer-led
| Task | How AI is used | Human involvement | What the lawyer must review |
|---|---|---|---|
| Draft a letter of demand from the contract and the ledger | Draft a letter of demand from the contract, the invoices and a lawyer-approved chronology of the unpaid amount. | YellowClose supervision |
|
| Decide whether the claim is in time and in the right court | Organise the candidate cause of action, the forum and the possible start dates into a table for the lawyer to decide whether the claim is in time. | RedLawyer-led |
|
| Draft particulars of a liquidated claim | Draft particulars of a liquidated claim from the contract, the ledger and the lawyer’s chosen court form. | YellowClose supervision |
|
| Compare enforcement options after judgment | Extract the judgment amount, the date and the known assets into a comparison of the enforcement processes the lawyer has named. | YellowClose supervision |
|
| Draft default or summary-judgment papers from the liquidated file | Under the lawyer's direction, work up the request for default judgment or the notice of motion for summary judgment, the interest-to-judgment and scale-costs calculation and the minute of judgment sought, from the contract, the ledger, the demand and the court form the lawyer has named. The tool writes no part of any affidavit in the pack — not the affidavit of debt, not the affidavit of service, and not the affidavit verifying the facts and the belief that the defendant has no defence — no draft, no scaffold, no suggested paragraphs; on those it only indexes the exhibits, lists ledger entries with no source document, and checks the lawyer's sworn draft against the ledger and the court's form. | YellowClose supervision | Check the judgment sum, the interest period and rate and the costs claimed against the ledger, the contract and the current scale, and confirm the default or summary-judgment ground is made out under the rules of the court the claim is in. The affidavit of debt and the affidavit of service are the lawyer's own drafting: check every figure, date and exhibit reference against the source documents, and satisfy yourself the deponent has the knowledge deposed to, before it is sworn and filed. |
| Draft an instalment or settlement agreement from the approved terms | Produce a first-draft instalment deed or consent judgment from the lawyer's approved payment plan, default clause and release. | YellowClose supervision |
|
| Draft a statutory or insolvency demand from the judgment or the debt | The lawyer writes the demand; the tool extracts from the sealed judgment, the invoices and the ledger the amount outstanding at the date of the demand and the debtor's exact name, ACN and registered office or service address, lists every figure in the lawyer's demand that no judgment line or ledger entry supports, and checks the lawyer's demand against the current prescribed form and the stated 21-day compliance period. It writes no part of the statutory demand or the bankruptcy notice application, and nothing at all of the affidavit verifying the debt that a demand for a non-judgment debt must carry — no draft, no scaffold, no suggested paragraphs. | RedLawyer-led | The lawyer confirms the demand is their own words, that the amount demanded is due and payable and reconciles to the cent with the judgment or the ledger at the demand date, that the debtor's name, ACN and the address for service are the ones on the current search, and that the form, the signature and the compliance period are the current prescribed ones. The lawyer swears or obtains the verifying affidavit themselves, and satisfies themselves that no genuine dispute or offsetting claim makes the demand the wrong step, before it is served. |
| Draft an examination, garnishee or third-party debt application from the asset notes | From the judgment and the known-asset notes, produce first-draft examination or garnishee papers using the process the lawyer has chosen. | YellowClose supervision |
|
| Check the claim pack against the current form, fee and registry rules before filing | Compare the completed originating document, particulars, party details and verification against the current form version, filing checklist and fee scale for the court and stream the lawyer has chosen, inside the firm's validated recovery template, and list every mismatch, blank field and stale form reference. | GreenLawyer review | Confirm the court and stream are right for the amount claimed and the relief sought, check the party names and entity type against the company and land searches, and sign the verification or certificate personally. |
| Reconcile the debt, interest and recoverable costs to the judgment date | Extract the transaction entries from the ledger and the statements, recalculate interest for each period against the basis, rate and rest days the lawyer has specified, compare the result against the amount claimed, and flag every entry with no supporting document. It writes nothing into the affidavit of debt, the request for judgment or the demand. | RedLawyer-led | Select the interest basis and verify the rate against the current instrument for the period, decide which credits and costs are recoverable, and settle the figure that goes into the sworn material and the judgment personally. |
| Assemble the service evidence before asking for default judgment | Index the service attempts, addresses, dates, post and courier records and searcher notes, compare each against what the rule requires for this party type, and list what is missing, inconsistent or out of sequence. It writes nothing into the affidavit of service. | RedLawyer-led | Decide whether service is good on each defendant, confirm the entity type and the last known address against current searches, and have the affidavit sworn from the deponent's own knowledge. |
| Build the debtor's means and asset picture before choosing an enforcement step | Organise the searches the lawyer has ordered — company and business-name extracts, land titles, personal property security, vehicle and bankruptcy searches, and the ledger's payment history — into one profile per debtor, keep every entry tied to its source and date, and flag entries that match only on name, on an old address or on a superseded entity number. | YellowClose supervision | Decide which entries actually belong to this debtor before any step issues, confirm the debtor's identity and entity type against the judgment as entered, and check the currency of each search. |
| Work out the protected earnings and exempt property before an income or property enforcement step | Populate the firm's protected-amount worksheet from the debtor's pay or account data and the prescribed figure the template's rate source supplies, show the deduction and the retained balance for each pay period, and set out the arithmetic line by line with the source of each figure. | GreenLawyer review | Verify the prescribed figure against the current instrument for that state and pay period, confirm which payments and which items of property are exempt, and check the amount stated to the employer, bank or sheriff against the worksheet before it issues. |
| Register an interstate judgment for enforcement where the debtor or the asset is | Assemble the registration pack from the sealed judgment and the file: complete the receiving court's registration form and the notice to the judgment debtor from the judgment details, inside the firm's template, and diary the notice deadline and the receiving state's enforcement steps. | GreenLawyer review | Confirm the judgment is a registrable judgment of an Australian court rather than a foreign judgment under a different regime, that parties and amounts match the sealed copy exactly, and that notice of registration is given within the time the Act requires. |
Firm-wide obligations
| Obligation | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Trust accounting & handling client money | Checks that apply across files. |
| Costs, billing & litigation funding | Checks that apply across files. |
| Client-facing & access-to-justice AI tools | Checks that apply across files. |
| Incoming evidence — deepfakes & synthetic documents | Checks that apply across files. |
| AI decision systems | Checks that apply across files. |
| Confidentiality & client information | Checks that apply across files. |
| AML/CTF — the practice as a reporting entity | Checks that apply across files. |
What changes in New Zealand
| Topic | What changes |
|---|---|
| Small claims | The Disputes Tribunal, listed in the Courts of New Zealand GenAI guidelines. |
| Larger claims | District Court or High Court under New Zealand procedure. |
| Not Australian law | Use a New Zealand limitation statute, not a state table. Statutory demands follow the Companies Act 1993, not s 459E. |
- Courts of New Zealand: GenAI guidelines — Lawyers (7 December 2023) · 2026-09-23
- High Court Rules 2016 · 2026-09-23
- Companies Act 1993 · 2026-09-23
What changes in United States
Known here as: Debt recovery and civil enforcement
| Topic | What changes |
|---|---|
| State law | State law governs this work. Check the statutes, court rules and conduct rules of the state where the matter is. Do not import an Australian statute, form or court AI practice note. |
| Enforcement | Collections, garnishment and judgment enforcement are state procedure. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act overlays many consumer debts. |
Precedents for this area
- Letter of demand for a liquidated debt (pre-action), with conduct guardrails (Letter, AI use Yellow). A pre-action letter of demand for an unpaid fixed sum that shows how the amount is made up, invites payment or an arrangement, gives dispute and hardship pathways, and avoids conduct prohibited by the consumer laws and the debt collection guideline.
- Statement of claim for a liquidated debt (NSW UCPR Form 3A or 3B) and default judgment: completion guide (Court document, AI use Yellow). A completion guide for suing on a liquidated debt in NSW: choosing the court and division, completing the approved statement of claim, pleading the debt and interest, service, and moving for default judgment with an affidavit that meets the Local Court's AI rules.
- Enforcement pack after judgment: examination, writ for levy of property and garnishee orders (NSW UCPR forms guide) (Court document, AI use Yellow). A guide to choosing and completing NSW enforcement steps after a money judgment: examination notices and orders, writs for the levy of property, garnishee orders for debts and wages, protected amounts, stale judgments and interstate registration.
- Bankruptcy notice application (AFSA online) and creditor's statutory demand: checklist (Form, AI use Red). A checklist for the two insolvency demands: a bankruptcy notice against an individual judgment debtor, applied for online through AFSA, and a creditor's statutory demand against a company, with thresholds, timing, service and the traps that get them set aside.
- Instalment and forbearance deed (with acknowledgment of debt and consent judgment on default) (Deed, AI use Yellow). An original deed recording a debtor's acknowledgment of a debt, an instalment plan, the creditor's forbearance while payments are made, default triggers and a consent judgment or order that can be filed on default, with optional guarantor terms.
- Quality-assurance protocol for AI-generated bulk demands and debtor correspondence (Policy, AI use Yellow). A firm protocol for demands and debtor letters drafted or sent with AI at volume: approved templates, data checks before sending, hardship, dispute, representative and limitation flags, contact limits, sampling rates, lawyer sign-off and incident handling.
- Client notice: AI use in debtor-ledger triage and recovery prioritisation (Notice, AI use Yellow). A notice to creditor clients explaining how the firm uses AI to reconcile and triage their debtor ledgers and suggest recovery priorities, what data leaves the firm, what lawyers decide, privacy implications including automated-decision transparency, and the client's choices.
All precedents for Debt Recovery & Civil Enforcement. Signed-in accounts can read the full text.