EVIDENCE ACT 1977 - SECT 55 Proof of incorporation or registration of company in Queensland

EVIDENCE ACT 1977 - SECT 55

55 Proof of incorporation or registration of company in Queensland

(1) Evidence of the incorporation or registration of a company within the meaning of the Corporations Act that is taken to be registered in Queensland may be given by the production of—

(a) a certificate of the incorporation or registration of the company that purports to be given by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (the
"commission" ), the commission’s delegate or a commission officer; or

(b) an affidavit or statutory declaration of an officer of the company (
"company verification" ) made under the Oaths Act 1867 .

(2) The date of incorporation or registration mentioned in the certificate or company verification is evidence of the date on which the company was incorporated or registered.

(2A) Evidence that a company is not incorporated or registered, or no longer incorporated or registered, may be given by the production of a certificate that purports to be given by the commission, the commission’s delegate or a commission officer.

(2B) The date a company ceased being incorporated or registered mentioned in the certificate is evidence of the date on which the company ceased being incorporated or registered.

(3) A document that purports to be—

(a) a copy of, or extract from, a document kept and registered in the office of the commission; and

(b) certified by the commission or the delegate or an officer of the commission;

is admissible in evidence in all cases in which the original document is admissible and for the same purposes and to the same extent.

(4) If the prosecution in a criminal proceeding intends to rely on a company verification, the prosecutor must serve a copy of it on the defendant or the defendant’s legal representative—

(a) for a summary trial or committal proceeding—

(i) when the summons is served on the defendant; or

(ii) not later than 14 days after the defendant first appears in court for the alleged offence; or

(b) for a trial on indictment—not later than 14 days after the indictment against the defendant is presented.

(5) A defendant who is served with a copy of a company verification under subsection (4) must give the prosecution a written notice stating whether the defendant intends to contest a following matter about the company’s incorporation or registration mentioned in the company verification—

(a) the fact of its incorporation or registration;

(b) the date of its incorporation or registration;

(c) the date on which it ceased being incorporated or registered.

(6) The defendant must give the notice by not later than—

(a) 10 days before the day the trial of the proceedings to which the notice relates starts; or

(b) the end of a later period allowed by the court, if the court considers it just to extend the period in the particular circumstances.

(7) If, in a proceeding before it, a court considers the defendant or the defendant’s lawyer has unnecessarily caused the prosecution to prove the incorporation or registration of a company, the court may order the defendant to pay the prosecution’s costs of proving the incorporation or registration.

(8) For this section, a defendant is taken to be served with a copy of a company verification if the copy is served on the defendant’s lawyer.