Small Claims Court in Ontario

Small Claims Court in Ontario hears claims up to $50,000, and that ceiling is no longer something you can step over by choice. Since 2023 a claim that fits inside it cannot be started in the Superior Court of Justice without leave.

About this work

What can you bring to Small Claims Court?

Claims for the payment of money, and claims for the return of personal property, where the amount or the value does not exceed $50,000 exclusive of interest and costs. That covers most unpaid invoices, most small contract disputes, unreturned deposits, unpaid loans between people who know each other, damage to property, and a good deal of what a landlord and a tenant end up arguing about once the tenancy is over.

What it does not cover is anything that is not money or a chattel. The court cannot order somebody to perform a contract, cannot grant an injunction, cannot make a declaration, and cannot deal with title to land. A dispute about a right of way is a Superior Court matter whatever it is worth, and so is a claim that needs a certificate of pending litigation registered against a property, which issues under section 103 of the Courts of Justice Act.

The $50,000 is measured exclusive of interest and costs, which matters more than it sounds. A debt of $48,000 that has been outstanding for three years still fits, because the interest does not count towards the ceiling.

Where a claim genuinely sits a little over the line, abandoning the excess to stay inside it is sometimes the better commercial decision. Not always. It is a real choice with a real cost, and it is worth making deliberately rather than discovering after the fact.

Written by the firm. Pending review by Kapil Rathod, Barrister and Solicitor, Law Society of Ontario licence 77122E.

The clock

Which dates actually bind you?

20 days to file a defence

The limitation period decides whether there is a claim at all. Everything below it is the timetable the case runs on once there is.

2 yearsTo sue at all, from the day the claim was discovered
20 daysFor a defendant to serve and file a defence after being served
90 daysTo the settlement conference, from the first defence filed
7 daysBefore trial, the last day an offer to settle can carry doubled costs
30 daysTo serve a notice of appeal, from the making of the order

The two years is section 4 of the Limitations Act, 2002, and section 5(2) presumes you discovered the claim on the day of the act or omission unless the contrary is proved. The rest are the Rules of the Small Claims Court: 20 days under rule 9.01, the settlement conference within 90 days of the first defence under rule 13.01(3), and the seven day offer under rule 14.07. The appeal period is rule 61.04(1) of the Rules of Civil Procedure, and it runs from the order rather than from the reasons.

What the court is

A separate court with its own rules, not a smaller version of the big one

The Small Claims Court is a branch of the Superior Court of Justice, but almost nothing about how a case runs there is the same. The differences are what make a modest claim worth bringing at all.

  1. Fifty thousand dollars, exclusive of interest and costs

    Section 23(1) of the Courts of Justice Act gives the court jurisdiction over claims for the payment of money and for the recovery of possession of personal property, and section 1(1) of O. Reg. 626/00 sets the maximum at $50,000. Interest and costs sit outside that figure, so a claim of exactly $50,000 still fits.

  2. Money and personal property only

    There is no jurisdiction to order somebody to do something, to declare a right, or to deal with land. A claim that needs an injunction, a declaration or anything touching title to property belongs in the Superior Court however small the money attached to it is.

  3. You cannot take a small claim to the bigger court instead

    Subsection 23(1.1), added by 2023, c. 12, Sched. 3, s. 1, says an action within the Small Claims Court's jurisdiction shall not be commenced in the Superior Court of Justice except with leave. Counterclaims and third party claims in an action already started there are carved out by subsection 23(1.2).

  4. A licensed paralegal can appear for you

    Section 26 allows a party to be represented by a person authorised under the Law Society Act, which includes licensed paralegals. That is the single largest reason a $12,000 claim is economic to run here and would not be economic anywhere else.

Side by side

Small Claims Court or the Superior Court?

7 points of difference

The amount decides it, and the decision then changes almost everything else about how the case is run and what it costs to lose.

Small Claims Court

The ceiling
$50,000, exclusive of interest and costs
Do you get to choose
No. A claim that fits here starts here, s. 23(1.1)
Examinations for discovery
None. Documents are attached to the claim and the defence
The rules of evidence
Relaxed. The court may admit anything relevant, s. 27
What losing costs you
Costs other than disbursements capped at 15 per cent of the amount claimed, s. 29
Who can represent you
A lawyer, a licensed paralegal, or yourself, s. 26
Appealing the result
To the Divisional Court, and only above $5,000, s. 31

Superior Court of Justice

The ceiling
Anything above it. Simplified procedure is mandatory to $200,000
Do you get to choose
Only above the Small Claims ceiling, or with leave
Examinations for discovery
Yes, and they are usually the most expensive part of the case
The rules of evidence
The ordinary rules of evidence apply
What losing costs you
Costs follow the event, with no percentage cap
Who can represent you
A lawyer, or yourself
Appealing the result
To the Divisional Court or the Court of Appeal, depending on the order

The route

How does the process run?

5 stages, each with its own clock

Each rule below is set by the Courts of Justice Act, its regulations, or the Rules of the Small Claims Court, and the provision is named beside it. Filing fees are set separately by regulation and change, so they are not printed here.

01

Fifty thousand dollars, and it has moved before

O. Reg. 626/00, s. 1

The maximum claim is $50,000, and the same regulation sets the amount a deputy judge may hear at the same figure. It was $25,000 until 2020, so an older page quoting a lower number is not wrong about the law, only about the year.

02

A claim that fits here cannot be started elsewhere

Courts of Justice Act s. 23(1.1)

Since 2023 an action within the court's jurisdiction shall not be commenced in the Superior Court of Justice except with leave. Splitting a claim to get above the ceiling is not a way around it, and inflating one is worse than useless because the costs cap is measured against the amount claimed.

03

Costs are capped at 15 per cent of the amount claimed

Courts of Justice Act s. 29

An award of costs, other than disbursements, shall not exceed 15 per cent of the amount claimed or the value of the property sought, unless the court considers it necessary in the interests of justice to penalise a party or a representative for unreasonable behaviour in the proceeding.

04

An offer to settle can double the costs the other side pays

Small Claims Rules 14.07

Where a party's offer was made at least seven days before trial, was not withdrawn and did not expire, and the judgment is as favourable as the offer or better, the court may award up to twice the costs of the action other than disbursements. A self represented party who gets that award may also receive up to $1,500 for inconvenience and expense.

05

An appeal only exists above five thousand dollars

s. 31, and O. Reg. 626/00 s. 2 as amended by O. Reg. 42/25

An appeal lies to the Divisional Court from a final order for the payment of money in excess of the prescribed amount, excluding costs. That amount rose to $5,000 on 1 October 2025. Below it the trial judgment is the end of the matter.

Before the meeting

What to bring to the first meeting

6 things to bring

Bring what you have and say what is missing. A meeting with the papers in front of it settles in one sitting what two telephone calls will not.

  • ✓The contract, invoice, receipt or written agreement, whatever form it took
  • ✓The messages and emails, in order, including the ones that do not help you
  • ✓The dates: when the work was done, when payment was due, when it was refused
  • ✓Anything you have already sent demanding payment, and any answer to it
  • ✓The other side's full legal name and address, and whether it is a company
  • ✓A note of what you know about whether they could actually pay a judgment

Our approach

A clear path forward

The same four steps on every matter, whether it is a refusal at the Federal Court or a ticket at the Provincial Offences court.

Book a consultation
01

Understand

We take the full history and read the documents before offering an opinion. Most bad advice comes from acting on half the facts.

02

Assess

You get a candid read on strength, timeline and cost, including when the honest answer is that you do not need to hire anyone.

03

Act

We prepare the application, the defence or the appeal properly the first time, because fixing a weak record later is harder and dearer.

04

Report

You hear from us at each stage, and you hear what a wait actually means rather than a date chosen to sound better.

Reported decisions

What has this work produced?

7 allowed of 22 reported since 2023

Public judgments of the Federal Court with Kapil Rathod as counsel of record, each checkable by citation on the court's own site. The rest were dismissed and are listed with these ones.

All case outcomes, including the client accounts

Updates

What has changed for Small Claims Court?

2 notes

Dated notes on the rule changes that reach this work. Each records what moved and when it took effect; this page carries the position now.

Ontario tenant compensation gets a carve-out

In force 21 September 2026

A landlord who gives 120 days of notice for their own use will not owe the month's rent. Ontario tenant compensation survives everywhere else, and two other changes land the other way.

The Small Claims Court limit is now $50,000

In force 1 October 2025

Two figures moved on the same day. The Small Claims Court limit went to $50,000, and the amount a judgment has to exceed before it can be appealed went to $5,000.

Where to go next

Small Claims Court in Ontario is built to make a modest claim worth bringing: no discovery, relaxed evidence, a paralegal instead of a lawyer, and costs capped at 15 per cent.

What it cannot do is make a defendant with no money pay you, and that is the question worth answering before anything is filed.

The litigation practiceOur paralegal servicesBook a consultation

Common questions

What do people ask about Small Claims Court?

8 answered here

Written to be read once and acted on rather than to be rung about. Each answer is complete where the law allows a complete answer.

Why can you no longer take a small claim to the Superior Court?

Because subsection 23(1.1) of the Courts of Justice Act now says so. Added in 2023, it provides that an action within the Small Claims Court's jurisdiction shall not be commenced in the Superior Court of Justice except with leave of that court as provided in the rules.

Before that, a plaintiff could choose. Some did, on the view that a defendant would rather pay than face Superior Court costs, and the effect was to load the ordinary list with claims worth a few thousand dollars. The rule closed that.

Two things are carved out. Subsection 23(1.2) preserves counterclaims, crossclaims and third or subsequent party claims where the main action was properly commenced in the Superior Court. And a Superior Court action can still be transferred down under subsection 23(2), on requisition, with the consent of all parties, before the trial begins.

The practical consequence is that the ceiling now does real work. Whether a claim is worth $49,000 or $51,000 changes the court, the procedure, the cost of running it and the cost of losing it, so the valuation is the first serious question rather than a detail.

What does it cost if the case goes badly?

Less than almost anywhere else, and that is the design. Section 29 of the Courts of Justice Act caps an award of costs, other than disbursements, at 15 per cent of the amount claimed or the value of the property sought. On a $20,000 claim that is $3,000, whatever the winner actually spent.

There is one exception written into the section itself. The cap does not apply where the court considers it necessary in the interests of justice to penalise a party or a party's representative for unreasonable behaviour in the proceeding. Behaving badly is the way past the cap, and it is the only way past it.

Disbursements sit outside the cap, and they are assessed by the clerk. The amount allowed for preparing a claim or a defence is limited to $200 by rule 19.01(4), but service, filing and an expert's report are recoverable at what they reasonably cost.

Rule 14.07 is the provision that changes behaviour. A written offer made at least seven days before trial, not withdrawn and not expired, exposes the party who refused it to up to twice the costs of the action if the judgment is no better for them than the offer was. A serious offer made early is the cheapest thing either side can do.

What actually happens between filing and trial?

The claim is issued and served. The defendant has 20 days from service to serve and file a defence under rule 9.01, and a defendant who does not is noted in default, which is how a large share of these cases end.

Where a defence is filed, a settlement conference is mandatory. Rule 13.01(1) requires one in every defended action and rule 13.01(3) requires it within 90 days of the first defence being filed. A judge who will not hear the trial goes through the case with both sides and says what they think of it. Most cases end at or shortly after that conference.

If it does not settle, the trial is short and the evidence rules are relaxed. Section 27 of the Courts of Justice Act lets the court admit any oral testimony, document or thing that is relevant to the subject matter, whether or not it would be admissible in another court, and a copy of a document may be admitted where the judge is satisfied it is authentic.

That relaxation is not an invitation to turn up with nothing. It means the case is decided on the documents and the account you can actually produce, rather than lost on a rule of evidence nobody in the room was expecting. The party with the paperwork in order usually wins.

Do I need a lawyer for Small Claims Court?

No, and many people do not use one. Section 26 of the Courts of Justice Act lets you appear yourself, or be represented by a person authorised under the Law Society Act, which includes licensed paralegals. The question is proportion rather than permission: a $6,000 claim on clear documents may not need anyone, and a $45,000 claim with a real defence usually does.

My claim is worth more than $50,000. Can I just claim less?

You can abandon the excess to stay within the jurisdiction, and people do. It is a genuine trade: you give up the difference permanently, and in return you avoid discovery, get a faster hearing and cap your costs exposure at 15 per cent of what you claimed. Whether that is worth it depends on how much you are giving up and how likely the defendant is to pay anything.

What happens if the defendant ignores the claim?

A defendant who does not serve and file a defence within 20 days of service under rule 9.01 can be noted in default, and judgment can follow without a trial. That is the outcome in a substantial share of claims. Getting judgment and collecting on it are different problems, which is why the defendant's ability to pay is worth thinking about before you file.

Can I appeal if I lose?

Only if the final order is for the payment of money in excess of $5,000, excluding costs, or for personal property exceeding $5,000 in value. That is section 31 of the Courts of Justice Act with the amount set by O. Reg. 626/00, which rose from $3,500 to $5,000 on 1 October 2025. The appeal goes to the Divisional Court and the notice of appeal is served within 30 days of the order.

How long do I have before it is too late to sue?

Two years from the day the claim was discovered, under section 4 of the Limitations Act, 2002. Section 5(2) presumes you discovered it on the day the act or omission took place unless the contrary is proved, so on an unpaid invoice the safe assumption is that the clock started when payment was refused, not when you gave up chasing it.

Speak to someone this week

Bring the invoice, the messages and the dates. Small Claims Court in Ontario runs on a two year limitation period, and the sooner the claim is valued the sooner you know which court it belongs in.

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