5. Start your claim
Question & Answer
How do I start a claim with the Small Claims Court online service?The Filing wizard will ask you to:
Select a court
Choose the Small Claims Court that will deal with your claim. There are 59 Small Claims Courts in Ontario. Make sure you file your claim at the right Small Claims Court location.
In most cases, the location you choose must be the court nearest to where at least one of the people you’re suing lives or runs their business.
You can also choose the Small Claims Court closest to where the event happened that started your claim. But if this location is not the court nearest to the people you’re suing, you must prepare an Affidavit for Jurisdiction. The Affidavit shows the court that you have the right to sue at that court.
If you’re not sure which court location is right for you, call a court office and they will help you.
Give the amount of your claim
Enter the amount of money you’re asking for. The most you can claim in Small Claims Court is $35,000.
Your claim can include money for:
- work your employer owes you
- costs you paid for repairs
- injury caused by a faulty product
You can also claim property that belongs to you that you want returned. You must list all of the items you want returned, along with detailed descriptions and estimates of each item’s cash value. You can also say if you want the cash value of an item if it can’t be returned.
Decide if you want interest
You can ask for interest on the money you’re owed. If you do, you will be asked about the rate of interest.
If you and the have previously agreed on a rate of interest, enter the rate and choose Agreed upon with defendant. For example, you may have a contract that says what the interest rate will be if one of you owes the other money.
If you did not agree on a rate of interest, you can ask for interest at the rate the court has set. To do this, choose The Courts of Justice Act rate.
Interest is not included when determining if your claim is below the maximum amount of $35,000.
Once you have set an interest rate, you’re ready to fill out the rest of your claim.
