A notice of intention to sue should be given to the respondent before making a claim in court.  Otherwise, the costs of filing the claim will not be recoverable.  The notice can be given in the form of a Final Notice or a Letter of Demand.  The recipient has 21 days to respond to your notice, in which time the recipient may:

  • pay the money that you claim you are owed
  • negotiate with you to come to an arrangement
  • ask to go to a pre-action meeting between the parties to negotiate a resolution
  • ignore the notice

If the respondent agrees to pay the money or you are able to negotiate an agreement, you will not need to take further action in court.  If the other party does not want to pay, you have the option to proceed to a pre-action meeting if both parties agree to attend. See Mediation for more information.

It is important that you wait 21 days before making a formal claim. If you don’t wait 21 days and your claim is eventually successful, you may not be able to recover your costs from the other party.

The CourtSA Final Notice Form is used to generate a final notice to be served on another person before you lodge an action.

Being involved in a court action can be a complex and costly process. A final notice is a not a formal court action. However, it provides an opportunity for you to voluntarily negotiate a resolution with the Sender without further involvement by the Court. This may save you costs, time and court appearances.

  • The correct names and addresses of all parties involved.
  • The reason for your final notice.
  • To answer all the questions marked with an asterisk ( * ).

You will need to pay a fee for lodging this form using a credit/debit card.

See the Civil Court fees page for more information.

Steps:

  1. Log in to CourtSA
  2. Select “Start a new case” in the drop down field
  3. Then “Yes” if you know what you would like to do
  4. Select “Final Notice” in the case type drop down field
  5. Read the information in the blue information box then click “Start the CourtSA Final Notice form”
  6. Complete the form and click proceed
  7. Complete the online payment process
  8. Once your final notice has been paid for, you will receive a receipt confirmation
  9. To view your final notice document, go to “My Cases” and click on the “My existing cases” tab
  10. Select the “View Case” in the action column
  11. The summary screen will display a case details panel and parties panel
  12. To download and print a copy of your final notice to serve, click the “Documents” tab and then the final notice hyperlink within the Filed Documents panel

Your final notice will be automatically approved. Using the information you provided, CourtSA will generate a sealed Form P1 Final Notice.

You will receive an email from CourtSA letting you know the form is available on CourtSA along with information about what happens next.

Log in to CourtSA