Responding to an examination notice or order

Information about how you can respond if you have been sent an examination notice or served with an examination order.

Examination notice

The examination notice is a form that is posted to you. The form has questions about your income, assets and debts. If you receive an examination notice from the judgment creditor, they must give you at least 28 days to answer all the questions and send the form back.

To respond to the examination notice you should:

fill out the financial statement section at the end of examination notice
make copies of the documents that you have been asked to produce and attach them to the examination notice
sign the examination notice
send the signed examination notice and the copies of documents to the other party's address for service by the date listed.

For instructions on how to complete this form and an example of a completed form, see:

Examination order

If you ignore the examination notice, don't fill it out properly or don't provide all the documents, the other party can apply for an examination order. If you get an examination order you have to go to court and answer questions about your income, assets, debts and employment. This is called 'examination'.

If you are served with an examination order you will need to:

attend court on the date in the examination order
answer questions from the other party at court
bring copies of the documents listed in the examination order.

The examination is an informal process. You and the other party will sit together whilst the other party asks you some questions about your financial circumstances and asks to look at the documents listed in the order.

If you try and hide information or refuse to answer questions, the judgment creditor may ask for an adjournment and for the registrar to order you to produce certain documents.

If you have been properly served with an examination order and do not attend at the listed time and date, the court can either adjourn (postpone) the examination until a later date or issue a warrant for your arrest.

Usually, the court will write to you and give you 14 days to pay the debt or go to court for examination. If you do not go to court, the court may issue a warrant for your arrest.

The court may also order that you pay the other party the costs of the examination order, for attendance at the examination and for the issue of the arrest warrant, all in addition to the judgment debt.

If you want to negotiate with the other party, see Negotiating after judgment in After court.