Enforcing an interstate judgment in NSW
Interstate judgments work like driver’s licences. Registering one in NSW doesn’t make a new one.
Section 105 of the Service and Execution of Process Act 1992 (Cth) lets a judgment from one State be enforced in another. It works the same way as your driver’s licence. Each State accepts the others’, so nobody has to sit the test twice, or sue twice.
1. Two kinds of mutual recognition
| Interstate licence in NSW | Interstate judgment registered in NSW | |
|---|---|---|
| Does NSW check it again? | No. It must be recognised (Road Transport Act 2013 s 29) | No. The registry must register it. No hearing, nothing decided (s 105(1)) |
| Whose limits apply? | The home State’s. A disqualification there is a disqualification here (s 207(2)) | The home State’s. It can be enforced in NSW only if it could still be enforced at home (s 105(5)) |
| Does crossing the border reset the date? | No. It’s still the Queensland licence, with Queensland’s expiry | No. It’s still the other State’s judgment, with its original date |
| What about old ones? | An expired licence doesn’t start working at the border | In Victoria, Queensland, SA and WA, a judgment more than six years old generally can’t be enforced without the court’s permission. A bankruptcy notice can’t be issued on one (Bankruptcy Act 1966 s 41(3)(c)) |
2. A “new” licence is a crime
A suspended Queensland driver who crosses to Tweed Heads and gets a NSW licence isn’t a genius exploiting a loophole. They’re committing a crime (Road Transport Act s 54).
The same common sense applies to judgments. If someone files a stale judgment and gets back what looks like a new one, they can’t exploit it.
3. Nobody checks
In NSW, registration and enforcement happen on the papers, without a hearing, and are left entirely to registrars. If a registrar, or the system itself, made that error, there’s no step in the process where anyone would check.
If it were happening routinely, we wouldn’t know. We couldn’t find any published figures on how many interstate judgments are registered in NSW, how old they are, or what is done with them.
4. The key words
Section 105(2) says a registered judgment can be enforced “as if” it had been given by the NSW court. That’s about enforcement. It doesn’t say the judgment becomes a NSW one, and s 105(5) would make no sense if it did. A Queensland licence lets you drive in NSW as if you held a NSW licence. It doesn’t make you the holder of one.
Sources
- Service and Execution of Process Act 1992 (Cth) s 105.
- Road Transport Act 2013 (NSW) ss 29, 54, 207(2).
- Bankruptcy Act 1966 (Cth) s 41(3)(c).
- Supreme Court (General Civil Procedure) Rules 2015 (Vic) r 68.02; Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 1999 (Qld) r 799; Uniform Civil Rules 2020 (SA) r 201.5; Civil Judgments Enforcement Act 2004 (WA) s 13.