Legal Matters #3 Small Claims Court: It’s time to SUE:
1. Last entry was the “demand letter” where the amount owing was described and the threat of a lawsuit ended this important letter in trying to collect one’s debt.
2. The ten days have passed and now it’s time to sue them in small claims court.
The plaintiff’s claim:
1. When you sue, or advance the claim, you are called the plaintiff. The other side is called the defendant and both sides are called “parties” to a suit.
2. Download a form, called a “plaintiff’s claim” or number 7a in the Small Claims Court forms.
3. You must file the suit in the proper branch of small claims court. They are not connected in the slightest. If the event (called the cause of action) took place in Toronto, then file in the Toronto court at 47 Sheppard Ave. east, 3rd floor, at Yonge and Sheppard. If the event, or the debtor lives in Richmond Hill, you must file there.
4. Exceptions to the rule: if the “cause of action” took place in Toronto, you live in Toronto and you want to deal with it in Toronto, but the debtor lives in Richmond Hill (for instance) you can still file in Toronto. You must fill out a special form called an “Affidavit of Jurisdiction” which is a one page form and very simple to fill out.
5. Filling it out constitutes 5 main parts:
a. The first page—contact information for both parties. If you are an individual, fill in the last name, etc. If you are a company, or another entity, fill in the “last name” as your company name. Your own personal name, if you are a corporation, should not appear on the first page. If you have a paralegal, then they are considered your “representative”. Fill in as much information on the defendant as you can.
b. If there are more than 1 debtor, fill in a form “1a” which is called “additional parties”. Don’t get confused with “additional debtors”. That is not the correct form for this part. You do not have t fill in 3 claims if there are 3 debtors, but only 1 form with the additional 1a attached, which follows the first page.
c. Page 2 of the plantiff’s claim asks what happened, etc. Make sure you put in the very summary events where they ask you and then proceed to describe the events. Best are paragraphs headed by numbers for ease of reading and discussing later on. Start with: the parties and who they are, what happened, and attempts to resolve. Add in any documents that prove the case and will be important in advancing your claim. You refer to these documents as Document 1, 2, 3, etc. throughout the document and put them in at the end. Do not call them exhibits, as that is an incorrect usage of the term here.
d. Add in how much money the debtor owes you, and where you are sending the document.
e. The third page states again how much money you are demanding, date and signature.
f. You must file it in the correct court, pay the $75.00. We will discuss serving it to the defendant next week.
Written by: Reena Basser, Licensed Paralegal. Phone: 416 888 2390—office at Wilson and Bathurst.
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