After court

After both you and the defendant have presented your case at the hearing, the magistrate or assessor will make a decision. Usually the de​cision is made on the sa​me day as the hearing.

Sometimes the decision of the magistrate or assessor is 'reserved'. This means that the magistrate or assessor needs some more time to consider all the evidence. The decision will be postponed to another day and the court will contact you when the decision has been made. 

​​If you win

If you win, the court has made a judgment in your favour. 

If your claim is for money, the amount of money you are owed is called the judgment debt. You are now called the judgment creditor and the defendant becomes the judgment debtor. 

The court will order the other party to pay you the money as well as any interest, filing and service fees you have claimed.  The judgment takes effect immediately when it is made. Sometimes, the court can set a date for when money should be paid or when goods should be returned. 

If the other party does not pay all of the judgment debt within 28 days of the date of the judgment, you can claim interest on the unpaid amount of the judgment debt until it is paid. This is called 'post judgment interest'. 

If the other party does not pay the judgment, you can take steps to force them to follow the judgment. This is called enforcement. For more information, see Enforcement.

If you lose

If you lose the case, do not argue with the magistrate or assessor. 

An order may be made that you have to pay the other party's legal costs. 

If you want to appeal the decision, you should get legal advice. An appeal must be filed within 28 days of the date of the decision. 

Reviews 

In the Small Claims Division of the Local Court, registrars often make decisions regarding applications to the court and at the pre-trial review. 

If a registrar makes a decision and you are unhappy with it, you can apply to have the decision reviewed by a magistrate of the Local Court. For example, you may want a magistrate to review a decision made by a registrar to set aside a default judgment.

If you apply to review the decision of the registrar, and the decision is not changed, you may be ordered to pay some of the defendant's legal costs. 

An application to review a registrar's decision must be made within 28 days of the date of the decision. 

If you want to review the decision of a registrar, you should get legal advice.

For more information, see Apply for a review of a Local Court decision.

Appeals 

Appeals from the Small Claims Division of the Local Court are made to the District Court. 

It is very difficult to appeal a Local Court – Small Claims decision. You can’t appeal just because you don’t like the decision. You can only appeal if:

• ​You have been denied procedural fairness. For example, you were not given a fair chance to present your case.
  
• The magistrate or assessor acted outside of their powers. This means they made a decision or order that they did not have the power to do.
  

An appeal against the decision of a magistrate or assessor must be made to the District Court within 28 days of the decision.

If you appeal a decision and you lose, it is very likely that you will have to pay legal costs. Before filing an appeal, you should get legal advice​. 

For more information, see Appeal the Local Court decision.

If you won your case, this means there is a judgment in your favour. If the judgment is for an amount of money, the other party might: 

• ​ask to make regular payments to you, or
  
• apply to the court to make regular payments to you, until the full amount is paid.
  

If you won your case and the judgment is for the return of goods, the other party might:

• ​return the goods as ordered 
  
• contact you to make arrangements to return the goods
  
• not return the goods.
  

If the other party does not return the goods, you may be able to take enforcement action. You can ask the court for a Writ for the Delivery of Goods which allows the Sheriff to collect the goods from the other party. For more information, see  Step by step guide -Writ for the delivery of goods​.

If you think that the goods have been lost or destroyed, you should get legal advice.

If there is a judgment that says the other party must pay you money or return your goods, you can take action to 'enforce the judgment'. This is called 'enforcement'. 

Enforcement action includes:

• ​​Examination Notice
  
• Examination Order
  
• Writ for the Levy of Property
  
• Writ for the Delivery of Goods
  
• Garnishee Orders
  
• Bankruptcy.
  

You have up to 12 years from the date of the judgment to enforce the judgment If you want to enforce a judgment older than this, you should get legal advice​.

For more information go to Enforcement

For information on enforcing a decision made by NCAT, see Step by step guide - Enforcing NCAT orders.

For information on enforcing a decision made in another state, see Step by step guide - Enforcing interstate judgments.

If you have a default judgment, sometimes the defendant will make an application to the court to set aside (cancel) the judgment. This usually happens if the defendant says they did not receive the statement of claim or something stopped them responding to it within 28 days (for exam​ple, they were sick or overseas).

The application will usually also include an application for a stay of enforcement. A stay of enforcement (sometimes called a stay of proceedings) is an order of the court that stops you from enforcing the judgment debt for a period of time.

For more information, see Step by step guide - Respo​nding to an application to set aside default judgment.