We have clients that seek legal advice when someone owes them money, or when they have bought a shonky product, or paid for a poor service. Some clients have great difficulty with locating the person that owes them money and it becomes a big task just to get the legal proceeding started.
Unfortunately solicitors do not have any special powers nor are we telepathic or have x-ray vision like a superhero. With that said, we are very resourceful and have access to search tools to track people down. If you are in a situation where you cannot find the person who owes you money (we call that person a “debtor”) or if the debtor is a bit shifty and you do want to sue them, there are things you can do to help us to help you.
There are good reasons why you should locate the debtor before you can commence your legal proceeding. We need to “serve” the person with the court documents throughout the proceeding. For example, if you wish to recover a sum of money that is under $150,000.00 you would sue the person in the Magistrates Court. Firstly, one of our solicitors would draft a claim and statement of claim, and would then have it filed in the court. Then, the claim and statement of claim must be given personally to the debtor. Usually your solicitor will engage a bailiff to find the debtor and serve court documents for a small fee. We like to give the bailiff as much information as possible, to help him find the debtor.
It is important to know that the legal proceeding doesn’t commence until the debtor has notice of your claim. It can take a few days or sometimes a few months to find a debtor. This can be very frustrating for you if you are owed serious money.
This is why we attempt to confirm a residential address or business address for the debtor before we file the claim and statement of claim. We do this by taking instructions from you to complete various searches. We have various subscriptions to information registers and you pay a small fee for us to search the registers. These include land registers, personal property registers, Queensland motor vehicle register, searches of the Australian Electoral Commission and Australian Securities and Investments Commission company registers. These searches have proved to be successful in locating an individual or company or business. Although, there are some circumstances where the information is not up to date and we often hear from the bailiff who cannot find the individual or business at the address we provided.
Therefore, it is beneficial for you to do your own research as to the debtor’s whereabouts, while also instructing the solicitor to conduct their searches. This will help to locate the debtor quicker and this information can be given to the bailiff.
We have a few tips for you about the information which is available for free on the internet, and in our experience this has been very useful in finding debtors. You can conduct searches on Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Yellowpages, Whitepages and Twitter. You can ask around town for the debtor’s whereabouts or make anonymous enquiries at their place of business. Although, if your debtor is evasive or shifty you should consider being discrete about your research as he or she may become aware of your intention to serve court documents, and then make it difficult for you to find him or her.
In relation to Google searches, you can type in a debtor’s full name or business name, for example, “Joe Debtor Blogs” or “Joe Blogs Painting Pty Ltd”. If you include a plus sign in that search field and write the town that they live or do business in you will narrow your search, “Joe Debtor Blogs + Mackay”.
Also, in Google you also have options to do a general search, or to the news page or the images page. It is common to find different types of information on the different pages. Have a look at the top left corner of the Google screen and you will see the options.
If you search in “Images” you might find a photograph of the debtor, or in “News” you might find a news article with contact details for an organisation that the debtor is associated with it. This type of information can really assist your Solicitor and the bailiff.
We also note that depending on how your matter progresses, it is likely that you will be required to serve the debtor with more legal documents. For example, if your debtor does not pay the debt early in the process, you may be required to serve the debtor with an enforcement hearing summons or an enforcement warrant. This means that your Solicitor will be required to find the debtor again. We recommend that you continue to conduct research throughout the proceeding, as it is not uncommon for a debtor to move house or change jobs.
If you wish to recover money from an individual, company or business please contact Kerry Kennell on 07 4944 2000.
