You can start civil proceedings in a New Zealand court without having to ask the New Zealand court if you can serve the documents on a person in Australia.
Some types of cases are not covered by the agreement. You can’t use these rules to start a proceeding against someone in Australia if it is about :
You should fill in the forms and file the documents with the New Zealand court by following the normal process for a New Zealand proceeding. For example, if you want to start a general proceeding, you should follow the process for general proceedings.
You also have to fill in this form and give it to the court at the same time as your other documents:
Notice giving prescribed information for defendant served in Australia – TTPRR form 1 [PDF, 1.7 MB]
This notice tells the Australian defendant about the:
If you don’t include this information when you serve the documents on the defendant in Australia, the defendant can ask the court to set aside (cancel) the proceedings or part of the proceedings.
You must follow the New Zealand court's rules when serving documents starting New Zealand court proceedings on a person in Australia. This means that:
Find out more about serving documents
If the defendant wants to defend the proceeding they must file their court documents in response no later than 30 working days after they are served with the proceedings.
The Trans-Tasman Proceedings Act can apply for employment cases between the 2 countries.
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