Summary Judgement In Court Under The Security Of Payment Act

An alternative to Adjudication is to seek judgement through a court. Attendance in person and / or legal representative is required.

Once a Payment Claim has been served the Respondent has ten business days to respond with either full payment or a Payment Schedule.

If the Respondent does not serve a Payment Schedule within the required time the claimed amount becomes a Statutory Debt.

This means the Claimant can file a Statement Of Claim in the appropriate court seeking judgement for the debt under the Security Of Payment Act.

This can be a sure and fast option as long as the Respondent isn’t able to put up a defence which shows that the Claimant hasn’t complied fully with the Security Of Payment Act.

There are some draw backs with this option though. Basically, your are getting involved in traditional court proceedings that may be drawn out for months and cost tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees and it is best to only ever consider that you have a 50-50 chance in court proceedings.

While as there are circumstances where filing for summary judgment is the best option, more often than not going down the path of adjudication is the safest, quickest and cheapest option.