Serving documents

Almost every document you file in the District Court must be served or given to the other party in the proceeding. It is the plaintiff’s responsibility to serve their documents on the defendant, and the defendant’s responsibility to serve their documents on the plaintiff. This includes information about when and where a hearing or conference will take place.

Documents that begin a proceeding(such as the statement of claim, notice of proceeding and list of documents, or an originating application)must be served by Personal Service unless the court says you can serve them another way. This means that the documents must be personally handed to the other person by the person who is serving them, or if they won’t take them, must be put down in front of them so they can see them. If you have tried to personally serve the documents but have not been able to you might be able to apply to the Court to serve them in another way.

Other documents can be served by:

• posting it to the address given to you by the other party for the purposes of service or leaving it at that address between 9am and 5pm
• sending it to a post office box, document exchange box, email address or fax number given to you by the other party for the purposes of service
• another method, that the court may allow you to use: you will need to make a specific application for this.

You do not have to serve documents on the other party when you are filing an application without notice.

This page was last updated: 02nd September 2021