Debt Recovery for Queensland Businesses
Getting a judgment is not the same as getting paid. The first question is not how to sue — it is whether the debtor can pay at all, and what it will cost to find out.
Debt recovery escalates: a letter of demand, then court proceedings and judgment, then enforcement against the debtor's assets or income. Where the debtor is a company, a statutory demand is a faster and much sharper alternative — but it carries a strict 21-day clock that cuts both ways.
Ask whether it is recoverable before you ask how
A judgment is a piece of paper recording that a debt exists. It does not produce money. If the debtor is a company with no assets, or an individual with no property and no employment, a judgment may be worth nothing at all — and you will have spent real money obtaining it.
So the honest first conversation is about the debtor, not the debt: who they are, whether they are a company or a person, whether anyone guaranteed the debt personally, whether you hold registered security, and whether the debtor is trading. That conversation sometimes ends with us advising you not to sue. That is a legitimate outcome and a cheaper one than the alternative.
If you have been served with a statutory demand, the clock is already running
You have 21 days from service to pay, reach an agreement, or apply to the court to set the demand aside. The application and its supporting affidavit must both be filed and served inside that period. The deadline is strict, and courts have consistently refused to extend it — even where the parties consent.
Miss it and the company is presumed insolvent. You then have to prove solvency instead, which is a far more expensive position to argue from, and the directors' exposure to insolvent trading becomes a live question. If a demand has arrived, treat it as urgent that day.
A statutory minimum applies to the debt claimed, and it has been increased in the past — confirm the current figure and the grounds for setting a demand aside against the Act itself. Sources 1–2.
Two things that decide the outcome long before the dispute
First, your terms of trade. Whether you can charge interest on overdue accounts and recover your legal costs of recovery generally depends on whether a term says so. Second, registered security. If you supply goods on credit, a retention of title clause that has not been registered on the Personal Property Securities Register will usually not help you against a liquidator.
Both are fixed in advance, cheaply, in the documents you issue to every customer. Neither can be fixed after the debtor stops paying. If recovery is a recurring problem in your business, the durable answer is upstream — see business contracts and terms of trade.