When you commence court proceedings or issue a means inquiry, you will need to hand the summons to the debtor. It is insufficient to email or post them. Experienced debtors know the system and will do their best to avoid being served.

If you cannot find your debtor, but have some means of communicating with them, the court may make substituted service orders allowing you to serve the summons using an alternative method. For example, the court may allow you to send the document by email or hand it to a friend or family member who has contact with them. In the past, the court has even allowed us to serve documents through a Facebook message and by SMS!

To maximise your chances of getting an order for substituted service, you should keep a record of when and how you communicated with your debtor (for example, telephone numbers and emails addresses).

Need help?

We recommend you see us for a 30 minute consultation ($250) where we can review the situation and advise you on the likelihood of getting an order for substituted service. You can make a booking online here.