CanLaw
How to Win
in Small Claims Court
WHAT IS SMALL CLAIMS COURT ABOUT?
How to sue someone in Small Claims court, represent yourself,sue someone, win and collect your judgment.
What to do if you are being sued in Small Claims.
In Small Claims courts (SCC) ordinary people settle minor disputes concerning money or property with a neighbour, a merchant or a customer for amounts up to $25,000 (Alberta is now $50.000.00).
They are people's courts where simple disputes are resolved.
It will take you the better part of a year to go through the entire Small Claims Court process and have your trial and get judgment. You may win or you may lose.
By the time your claim gets to court, both sides are usually fed up and just want the matter to go away. The majority of claims settle on the court house steps after a year or more of delays.
Yes, you can represent yourself in Small Claims Court,
Ask A Small Claims Court Lawyer
IS IT WORTH IT TO SUE SOMEONE IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT?
USUALLY NOT.
THINK BEFORE YOU ACT
MENU
ARE YOU BEING SUED?
If you have been served with a Small Claims Court Statement of Claim naming you as a defendant, then yes, you are being sued.
Generally you will have 20 days to file your defence at the Small Claims Court office named in the Statement of Claim. There are free Defence forms for this available on line in the various provincial Small Claims Court web sites.
You must also serve your defence on the plaintiff, the party who is suing you, obtain an Affidavit of Service proving you served your defence on the plaintiff.
WHAT WILL IT COST TO MAKE MY CLAIM?
Suing in Small Claims Court is frequently a case of throwing good money after bad.
It will easily cost you about $300.00 and 4 or 5 full days of your time to file, serve, attend the settlement conference and the trial regardless if you win or lose your case. There are filing fees around $75 to file a claim. If you want to go to trial, there is another fee of around $145.00 (fees vary from province to province.)
If you use a process server to server your claim on the defendant, you will probably pay $100 to $150. Shop around for process servers.
Click to see the CanLaw section on process service
IF YOU LOSE
You may have to pay some of the costs to the other side. If the other side is using a lawyer, costs will be much higher if you lose.
IF YOU WIN
You still have to collect. Is it worth it? Think twice before you answer. It can cost more time and money to collect from a deadbeat than it is worth. Courts will NOT collect money for you. You must do that yourself.
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This is not legal advice it is information .