Federal Court of Australia

Unserved Creditor's Petitions - avoiding unnecessary Court appearances (2001/3)

Note: This Practice Notice was superseded on August 29, 2007 by Practice Notice NSW 2007/2

1. This Notice Litigants and Practitioners (NSW 2001/3) replaces the "Notice to Practitioners - Unserved Creditor's Petitions - Avoiding unnecessary Court appearances" that was issued on 9 July 1996.

2. Where a creditor's petition has not been served on a debtor, and is likely to remain unserved on the scheduled hearing date, the creditor should approach the District Registry so that the scheduled return date can be vacated and a new hearing date fixed. This will avoid an unnecessary appearance in Court by the creditor where the Court will usually make 'No Order', as the petition has not been served.

3. The Registry will adopt the following procedure for vacating a hearing date for a petition:

(a) Upon the creditor's written request received no later than 10:00am on the business day before the scheduled hearing date, the Registry will arrange to vacate the scheduled hearing date and fix a new hearing date.

(b) It is recommended that the creditor's written request should be accompanied by all the original service copies of the creditor's petition so that the Registry can alter the particulars of the hearing date appearing at the end of each service copy of the petition.

(c) The altered service copies of the creditor's petition may, if the creditor wishes, be collected from the Registry or otherwise will be returned to the creditor by DX or ordinary mail.

Margaret Quinn
District Registrar
5 November 2001