1. Ask the court for an order if your employer doesn’t file a Defence

First, you have to file your claim and proof that you served the claim on your employer with the Small Claims Court.

Next, your employer has 20 days to serve you with what’s called a Defence [Form 9A]. They also have to file this with the court. On the Defence form, the employer explains why they disagree with all or part of your claim.

When you give forms and documents to the court, this is called “filing”.

“Serving” forms and documents means that you give or deliver them to someone following the rules of the court.

If your employer doesn’t file their Defence within the 20 days, you can ask the court to “note the defendant in default”. This means that the court says that your employer didn’t follow the rules because they didn’t file the Defence in time.

The court can then order your employer to pay you what you ask for in your claim.

Asking the court “to note the defendant in default”

Once it’s been 20 days since you filed your claim, you can fill out and file a Request to Clerk [Form 9B].

If you haven’t already done so, you also need to give the court a completed Affidavit of Service [Form 8A] to prove that you followed the rules about serving your employer.

After you file the Request to Clerk, the court can:

• decide your claim
• order your employer to pay you the amount of your claim

But until you file a Request to Clerk, your employer can still file a Defence. They can do this even after the time limit of 20 days. So it’s a good idea to file your Request to Clerk as soon as the 20 days have passed.