Statement of Claim

A statement of claim is normally the very first step in the legal aspects of a debt collection process. It is the next step in recovering a debt when the issuing of a letter of demand has failed. A statement of claim must disclose a cause of action such that there is a real issue to be heard in the court and the court can be staisfied that there really is something in dispute in the matter. The essential aspects of the statement of claim should be that it addresses the elements of the law which the claim is based on and that it is supported by evidence, which is usually in affidavit form to substantiate the claim. Our preferred source of a statement of claim template is given in a package with a letter of demand. You can obtain a Letter of Demand and Statements of Claim here.

A statement of claim template will assist you to save time with your lawyer and hopefully incur less legal fees as a result because the template will help to cut down the amount of administrative time that the lawyer has to spend collecting information, gathering details and getting all of the information from you in order to effectively file the statement of claim. It must be signed by a lawyer and then filed in the appropriate court. It should also usually be attended by the relevant affidavits which count as evidence. You generally need legal advice before issuing a statement of claim to ensure that the claim is not frivolous or inaccurate as this could result the award of legal costs against you if you are unsuccessful and the defendant does certain things in the course of defending the claim like filing a defence, requesting further and better particulars, bringing a motion for the discovery of certain essential documents and evidence and doing an entire range of things which may simply wear down your statement of claim and eventually force you to withdraw it.

Debt Collection Letter Resources