Service of Documents
Where to Serve
You may serve the documents to either the registered office (as per ASIC records) or to the ordinary place of business, the respondent may have more than one ordinary place of business.
How to Serve
In our opinion you should avoid email as the medium to serve documents under the Act. While service via an email will in most cases be valid, the main disadvantage of that method is that the recipient may deny that the email was ever received. Getting a delivery receipt is definitely a good practice. Also, establishing the exact delivery date and time (without the read receipt) could be challenging and will be done in accordance with the Electronic Transactions Act which provides for multiple outcomes.
Post
We strongly recommend postal service with tracking, this will help to verify when it was delivered. Postal correspondence is deemed as served when it is received by the other party, not when you send it.
Courier
Generally same as by post, but what if they refuse to take it or sign for it? Well, as long as it came to their attention, it will generally be deemed as served. For instance, slamming the door in front of a courier is not good enough. We had cases where Respondents attempted to hide from couriers, this will generally not prevent the document from being classified as served for the purposes of the Act.
Personally
We don’t like this method only because the respondent may deny that the service has occurred. It will usually be ideal for an independent third party (courier) to deliver the documents as their testimony will generally be viewed as unbiased and independent.
Any other method
The above methods are only examples and other methods of service may be used.