Acting for a Debtor - unpaid Invoice or invoices:

If you have received a letter of demand or a claim has been made against you or legal proceedings have been commenced against you for unpaid invoices rendered for goods and/or services sold to you, you may have a valid defence in relation to the claim, if you object to or dispute the Invoices or wish to defend yourself in relation to the claim or in respect of the legal proceedings.  Other defences may be available.  It may be the case, for example, that there could be some ambiguity as to whether or not the goods and/or services were provided on the basis of clearly spelt out express terms or alternatively, it may be the case that the goods and/or services were defective and/or or were not provided in a timely manner or in the manner required under the alleged contract, thereby causing you to suffer damages. 

The benefit of using an experienced law firm to assist you with the drafting of the Defence or other correspondence is that the Law firm will be able to properly set out, after due investigation, not only the terms of the alleged contract (if any), but also what express and/or implied or other obligations arise on the part of the provider of the goods and/or services and where able to be identified, where the supplier of the goods and/or services defaulted in an express and/or implied obligation that was owed to you.  Furthermore, the law firm will be able to consider the entire factual matrix and express opinion on other legal remedies that might be available to be considered, in any defence and/or any cross claim to any claim or legal proceedings instituted by the creditor. 

The very first letter that you send could be the very letter that hurts or prejudices your legal position significantly, often to such an extent that by the time you will decide to seek legal advice, significant damage may have been caused to your legal position, as a result of the ill-considered steps taken by you in an attempt to seek to defend yourself against an allegation without legal advice.  If a creditor is asserting that you are indebted to that creditor for the provision of goods and/or services, it is imperative that you instruct a law firm to assist you to understand clearly the relationship between you and the creditor, as well as properly articulate and plead your defence against that creditor, if a defence does exist. 

Lawyers will usually take all of the relevant documents, confer with you and take detailed instructions and then investigate the matter and provide you with a preliminary legal opinion as to what options might be available, including options to potentially defend the matter.   Not only might there be a defence available to you, but you may also be entitled to raise or bring a cross-claim against the creditor, seeking damages for what you have suffered as a result of the conduct of the creditor. 

If a claim has been made against you for unpaid invoices, you should immediately seek legal advice.   You should seek that a lawyer will assist you with liaison with the creditor.  Very often, we limit our retainer in these matters to the following steps:

1. obtaining a detailed understanding of the issues;
2. determining the legal rights and obligations between you and the creditor;
3. providing you with a preliminary legal opinion on strategy and options;
4. liaising with the creditor, to ensure minimization of risk or prejudice to your legal matter, with a view to ensuring that you assert any defence and/or cross claim you might have against the creditor.

If you have received a letter of demand or a claim or proceeding has been commenced against you for an unpaid invoice or invoices, you may wish to contact our firm by telelphone on (02) 9233 4048 or send an email to us at info@navado.com.au to make an appointment and arrange to meet with a Debt Collection Solicitor. 

This webpage (and any material or wording appearing on this webpage) is provided for general information purposes only and does not constitute any Legal Advice. It does not take into account your objectives, your instructions or all of the relevant facts and/or circumstances. Navado accepts no responsibility to any person who relies on the information provided on this website. We further refer you to our Disclaimer.