New Ontario Small Claims Court Rules

With the Ontario Small Claims Court limit being increased in Jan 2010 from $10,000 up to $25,000 have come new forms and new rules.

One major change relates to service of Small Claims Court documents.
Previous to the changes coming into effect you could mail your document to the other party through regular mail - you cannot do this anymore.

Now you must prove that the party received the documents by sending them by registered mail, courier, by hiring a process server or by personally serving them yourself.

Let's analyze each choice.

-Registered mail - someone who is avoiding a debt is going to know that a registered letter is not good news and are unlikely to go and pick it up.
-Process server - this is effective but can get expensive.

-Personal Service - you have a business to run, who has time to serve the documents themselves?

-Courier - highly effective with proper planning.

If you want to effectively serve your documents, you have to be one step ahead of the person you are suing. Three steps to cleverly serving a Small Claims Court Document:

1.Establish a relationship with local or privately owned courier company's (not fed-ex or Purolator).

2.Package your documents in a small letter sized box, wrap it in brown paper and do not indicate your return address on the label.

3.Advise the courier company that they are serving court documents and MUST get the waybill signed and not disclose who the package is from until it has been signed for. Most courier companies can arrange to have generic information printed on the way bill.

Don't view the recent changes to the rules for service as a hindrance. Evolve and adapt to the new policy so that you can achieve maximum results.

If you are a business that uses the Small Claims Court visit www.easycourtpro.com. Easy Court is the first online service in Canada where businesses can create their Small Claims Court forms online, across Canada! You will also find access to resources and the most current Small Claims Court information.

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