When a client is served with a claim form, the pressure is on immediately. Strict time limits start to run, and a missed deadline can hand the other side judgment without anyone ever looking at the merits. Knowing how to respond — and how to keep every defence and cross-claim open — is core to a litigator's day-to-day work, whether you decide to fight, buy time, or settle part of the case.
This lesson takes you through the defendant's side of proceedings from start to finish:
- Statements of Case and the Defendant's Options — what the formal documents are and the three ways a defendant can respond.
- Time Limits and Extensions — the deadlines for filing a defence and how to extend them before it's too late.
- Challenging Jurisdiction — how to dispute the court's right to hear the claim without losing the point.
- Default Judgment — when judgment can be entered for failing to respond, and how it can be set aside.
- Drafting the Defence — how to answer each allegation properly and what must be pleaded to be argued later.
- Set-Off, Counterclaims and Admissions — turning the dispute around, reducing the claim, or conceding part of it.
- Reply to Defence — when the claimant answers back, and how 'confession and avoidance' works.