File documents and prepare reply affidavit
You can file your court documents once one of the following has happened:
- The other party serves you with their Application Response and Affidavit, or
- 5 business days have passed since they received your documents, and they haven't responded.
You will need:
- Your Notice of Application (Form F31) (3 copies)
- Your Affidavit (Form F30) (3 copies)
- Any other supporting affidavits you haven't already filed but intend to rely on at the hearing (3 copies)
- A completed Notice of Hearing of Application (Form F31.1) (3 copies)
- An Affidavit of Ordinary Service (Form F16), which shows you served the other party (2 copies)
- $80 fee to file the Notice of Application.
Complete the Notice of Hearing of Application (Form F31.1)
This form will set the date of the hearing. Fill it out as follows:
Service - You will set out when you served the other person and when or if they responded.
Date of hearing - You will tick whether you and the other person have agreed on the date of the hearing or whether you will serve this Form F31.1 notifying the other person of the date of the hearing at least 4 business days beforehand. Or whether the application is by consent (agreed), unopposed (the other party will not argue against it) or without notice to the other party. Without notice applications are only allowed in specific circumstances or cases of urgency. See Supreme Court Scheduling on how to book a chambers application in your court registry.
Duration of hearing - this part asks whether the parties agree to the duration of the hearing.
Jurisdiction - this part asks if your issue can be heard by an associate judge. If you aren’t sure, ask the registry. Associate judges cannot give final orders and have other restrictions.
Orders sought - if you are seeking the same orders as set out in your notice of application, set them out here. If you and the other party have agreed on any orders in the meantime, you can set out that those ones are “by consent”.
File the court documents and serve Notice of Hearing of Application
Take these documents and the fee to your Supreme Court Registry. A registry clerk will take your money. review your documents, stamp them with the court seal and put the original into the file for your case. The stamped copies are returned to you.
Once you have filed the Notice of Hearing of Application, serve it on the other person. This will let them know the date of the hearing. They must be served at least 4 business days before the date set for hearing. Make sure you leave enough time to serve them and complete the remaining steps.
Prepare a reply affidavit, if necessary
If you receive an affidavit from the other person that contains new facts or issues, you might want to complete a reply Affidavit (Form F30). You must only respond to new information in the other person's new affidavit.
You must serve your reply Affidavit within 3 business days after you were served with the Application Response. You must file your reply Affidavit by 4pm 2 business days before the hearing. If you set the hearing for a Friday in your Notice of Hearing of Application, that means you must file the reply Affidavit by Wednesday at 4pm.