How to Take Someone to QCAT: Step-by-Step for Self-Represented Applicants

The Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) was built for ordinary Queenslanders to resolve disputes without a lawyer. The minor civil disputes jurisdiction handles claims up to $25,000 — unpaid invoices, consumer disputes, debt recovery, and dividing fences — under the QCAT Act 2009 and the QCAT Rules 2009. The process is simpler than the Magistrates Court but not so simple that mistakes don’t cost weeks.

Step-by-step before you file

Step 1: Send a Letter of Demand first. QCAT expects parties to attempt resolution before filing. A written demand also creates evidence the respondent had a chance to pay. Step 2: Confirm jurisdiction. The dispute must be under $25,000 and fit a recognised category (minor debt, consumer and trader dispute, property damage caused by a motor vehicle, or dividing fences). Domestic building disputes are a separate QCAT case type, and you must go through the QBCC’s dispute resolution process before applying. Step 3: Identify the respondent correctly. Use the legal name — for sole traders, the individual’s name; for companies, the exact ACN-registered name from the ASIC register. Step 4: Check the filing fee. Fees change each 1 July; check the current fee on the tribunal’s or court’s website before you file. Step 5: Gather your evidence. Contracts, invoices, communications, photographs, witness statements — indexed and chronological.

Common pitfalls of self-represented applicants

Three errors keep recurring. Suing the wrong entity — naming a trading name instead of the company is the most common reason QCAT amendments are needed. A vague chronology — the QCAT member needs dates, amounts, and documents, not narrative. Asking for relief QCAT cannot give — the tribunal can order payment of money and certain consumer remedies, but cannot order someone to apologise or “stop being unreasonable”.

What the document does

A QCAT Application (made on the application form on QCAT’s website for your category) tells the tribunal who you are, who the respondent is, what happened (with dates), what you want, and why QCAT has jurisdiction. It is the document the QCAT member reads before the hearing — get it right and you have already won the framing.

What Claim Done delivers

For a flat fee, Claim Done drafts the application document you file with QCAT — proper respondent identification, a clean chronology, and your relief sought under the right section of the QCAT Act, plus a witness statement. You lodge it through the QCAT portal or counter. About 15 minutes in the wizard, no solicitor appointment.

What happens after

Under QCAT’s Practice Direction 1 of 2026, a minor civil dispute of up to $10,000 usually goes to mediation first and a larger one goes to a hearing; QCAT’s website gives the current timeframes. If you are heading to a hearing, the next document you will need is a Hearing Bundle, which Claim Done also drafts as a flat-fee service: a chronology, statement of issues, evidence index, position statement and draft orders, as separate PDFs.