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Three cheap sentences Australia · check your court 3 min read

Say the helpful thing early

Some sentences are almost free to write on the day and very hard to reconstruct six months later. Put them on the record the first time they are true, in plain words, and then you never have to argue about them.

Use this when

You are replying to a demand, complying with something you dispute, or writing up a conversation.

Leave with

Three phrases you can use exactly, and the habit of confirming every spoken exchange in writing the same day.

Verify with

A civil litigation solicitor with a professional conduct practice.

The central rule

If it will matter later, write it down now, while it is uncontroversial

The record is built from what was said at the time. A sentence written today reads as a plain statement. The same sentence written in a submission a year on reads as a party trying to improve its position. Say the helpful thing when nobody is arguing about it.

The three sentences

  1. "I am not refusing to comply." Use it when you dispute a demand but are doing, or will do, what an order or rule actually requires. It separates disagreement from defiance; it does not stay the order or extend the time. Without it, a letter that argues can be described later as a refusal, and refusal is a word courts take seriously. Pair it with what you are doing and by when.
  2. "This is without admissions." Use it when you take a practical step, hand something over, or agree to a process, and you do not want the step read as accepting the other side's version. It records that doing the thing is not agreeing with the reason you were asked. The labels guide explains its limits: the words help; the substance still governs.
  3. "Subject to any corrections you may have." Use it at the end of a same-day note recording a conversation. It invites them to disagree now, in writing, and it makes silence meaningful. A note that was never corrected is a strong record of what was said: persuasive, not conclusive.

Each phrase goes in the same sentence as the thing it qualifies, not in a separate paragraph. The limited consent guide explains why.

Same-day confirmation

A room where everyone nodded becomes, in writing a week later, "our client was taking instructions". The best protection is a short open email sent the same day, before anyone else's version exists, for procedural conversations. Settlement and mediation discussions are different: they may be protected, and putting them in an open email can compromise that.

  • Date and time of the conversation, who was present, and the medium.
  • What was agreed, numbered, in plain words, with any limits stated inside each item.
  • What was not agreed or was left open.
  • "Subject to any corrections you may have." Add "If I do not hear from you by [date], I will proceed on this basis" only where you are independently entitled to proceed; silence is not their agreement.

Five lines is normal. The example letters have a template; the correspondence log is where it is filed. If they reply with a different account, you now have both versions dated the same day, which is a far better position than one version dated later.

From Jordan's case file

Fictional example: "Not refusing"
An order required Jordan to produce a list of documents by a date. He disputed the breadth of the order and intended to ask for it to be varied. His first draft reply to Meridian's solicitors argued the point for two pages. He replaced the two pages with one paragraph: he would produce the list by the date; he did so without admissions as to relevance; he was not refusing to comply; and he would be applying to vary the order for the reasons briefly stated. He attached the list. Three months later Meridian's submissions described his conduct as "a history of non-compliance". Jordan's reply quoted the paragraph and the date. The registrar read it and moved on. The argument about breadth was had in the proper place, on the application. The record of compliance had been made the day it was cheapest.

Checklist

  • Disputed demand: "not refusing to comply" stated with what you are doing and by when
  • Practical step taken under protest: "without admissions" in the same sentence
  • Every conversation confirmed in writing the same day, "subject to any corrections"
  • Limits stated inside each numbered item, not in a separate paragraph
  • Confirmation filed in the correspondence log with any reply beside it
General information only, not legal advice. The legal effect of "without admissions", "without prejudice" and similar words depends on context and on the law that applies in your court; the phrases help make the record clear but do not by themselves change your rights. All names, documents and events in the examples are fictional. Last reviewed: September 2026.