In a civil matter, a judicial officer can make a decision (known as a judgment), telling one party (the debtor) to pay money to the other party (the creditor). If the debtor does not pay, the creditor can apply to the Court to enforce the debt.

The Court does not automatically enforce civil judgments. If you are the creditor and want to enforce a judgment, you must request an Investigation or Examination summons.

You cannot lodge any enforcement proceedings in Higher Court cases using CourtSA. All enforcement proceedings for Higher Court cases must be lodged over the counter at Court Services.

You can manually enter the contractual or non-contractual interest and costs into this form, or you can upload the following documents:

  • Memorandum of Interest
  • Memorandum of Costs

You will need to pay a filing and service fee using a debit or credit card to lodge this form and for the Sheriff to serve your summons.

The service fee, lodgement fee and solicitor fees are automatically added to the default judgment when you lodge an investigation summons or examination summons. You should not claim these as “other costs”. The outstanding balance will show on the enforcement proceedings summary and includes fees automatically added.

Investigation Summons

You can request an investigation summons after you have been granted judgment for a debt and you want the judgment debtor to come to court to determine the following:

  • If they are able to pay the debtor
    How they will pay the debt.

To request this process you will need to provide the correct address of the judgment debtor owing the debt.

Examination Summons

You can request an examination summons if:

  • You have been granted judgment for a debt
  • The judgment debtor has not complied with a court order to pay

A judgment debtor is the party liable to pay a debt that the court has ordered them to pay.

To request this process you will need to provide the correct address of the judgment debtor and the amounts and dates of at least two missed payments

Steps:

  1. Log in to CourtSA
  2. Go to My Cases
  3. Find the case you wish to lodge an enforcement summons for and click “View Case”
  4. Go to the Enforcement tab and click ‘Actions’ alongside the particular enforcement proceedings you wish to lodge for
  5. From Actions, click ‘Request or Add a …’ and select ‘Investigations Summons’ or ‘Examination Summons’
  6. Complete the CourtSA Request Investigations Summons or Request Examination Summons form
  7. Lodge the CourtSA Request Investigations Summons or Request Examination Summons form
  8. Pay the lodgement fee

Please note if the judgment debtor is a company or organisation you will need to add a witness before you can request enforcement.

Steps:

  1. Log in to CourtSA
  2. Go to My Cases
  3. Find the case you wish to lodge an enforcement summons for and click “View Case”
  4. Go to the Enforcement tab and click ‘Actions’ alongside the particular enforcement proceedings you wish to lodge for
  5. From the Actions button, you need to click on the plus icon next to the judgment debtors name to add the witness
  6. Proceed with above steps to request or add an Investigation Summons or Examination Summons.

You will receive an email from CourtSA letting you know that your request for an investigation or examination summons has been received for review by the Court.

If it is accepted for filing:

CourtSA will generate a sealed Form 143 Investigation Summons or Form 146 Examination Summons using the information you provided.

You will receive a notification to let you know that your request has been approved and that the sealed form is available on CourtSA.

If you need to reissue the summons, there may be a further fee to pay.

If it is rejected

You will receive a notification to let you know why your request for enforcement was rejected. Your filing fee will be refunded to the credit/debit card you used to pay.

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