Resource Centre - Information on Small Claims Court Fees and Procedures

Our Resource Centre puts the information you will need to navigate the Small Claims Court, right at your finger tips.

Here you will find Small Claims Court fees, Small Claims Court locations, guides, legislation, legal definitions, links to search houses, links to helpful sites, links to legal professionals, collection letter templates and more...

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Small Claims Court Fees
Small Claims Court Locations
Guides and Legislation
Search Tools
Links
Templates

Small Claims Court Forms and Filing Fees

The following table outlines the Alberta Small Claims Court Filing Fees that you will have to pay to the court when you proceed to file your document:

Form

Court Filing Fee (involving more less than $7,500)

Court Filing Fee (involving more than $7,500)

Civil Claim	$100.00	$100.00
For filing a Dispute Note	Information is not available
Counter Claim	$100.00.00	$100.00
For filing an Affidavit or Certificate	$10.00

Small Claims Court Locations

Please note that you should always call before the go as some court locations have minimal staff or may be unstaffed all together.

Address:
208 Wolf St., 3rd Floor, Suite 350, Banff, Alberta
Phone Number:

Address:
601 - 5 Street SW, Calgary, AB T2P 5P7
Phone Number:

Address:
511 - 3 Ave., West PO Box 759 Drumheller, AB T0J 0Y0
Phone Number:

Address:
1A Sir Winston Churchill Square Edmonton, AB T5J 0R2
Phone Number:

Address:
9700 Franklin Ave., Fort McMurray T9H 4W3
Phone Number:

Address:
10504 - 100 Ave., Fort Saskatchewan, AB T8L 3S9
Phone Number:

Address:
10260 - 99 St., Grande Prairie, AB T8V 2H4
Phone Number:

Address:
10106 - 100 Ave, PO Box 1560, High Level AB T0H 1Z0
Phone Number:

Address:
237 Jasper St., West & Pembina Ave. PO Box 6450, Hinton AB T7V 1X7
Phone Number:

Address:
4612 - 50 St., Leduc, AB T9E 6L1
Phone Number:

Address:
320 - 4 St., S. Lethbridge, AB T1J 1Z8
Phone Number:

Address:
460 First St., S.E. Medicine Hat, AB T1A 0A8
Phone Number:

Address:
9905 - 97 Ave., Bag 900-34, Peace River, AB T8S 1T4
Phone Number:

Address:
4909-48 Ave., Red Deer, AB T4N 3T5
Phone Number:

Address:
190 Chippewa Rd., Sherwood Park, AB T8A 4H5
Phone Number:

Address:
3 St. Anne St., St. Albert, AB T8N 2E8
Phone Number:

Address:
4704 - 50 St., P.O. Box 1900, St. Paul, AB T0A 3A0
Phone Number:

Address:
4711 - 44 Ave., Stony Plain, AB T7Z 1N5
Phone Number:

Address:
4605-51 St., Wetaskiwin, AB T9A 1K7
Phone Number:

Guides and General Information

Here you will find answers to general questions specific to Small Claims Court Practice and Procedure; you can download the legislation that deals with the Rules of the Small Claims Court and definitions to common words used in the Small Claims Court

General Answers

Who Can Sue
Monetary Limit
Type of Claims You Can Not File In The Alberta Small Claims Court
Time Limits
Suing The Correct Party
Serving Documents
Methods of Service
Dispute Note
Settling Your Dispute
Filing a Dispute Note
The Next Steps

General Awnsers

Who Can Sue

You have to be 18 to sue someone. If you are under 18, you have to find someone to accept responsibility for the lawsuit including costs. This person is called the "next friend."

Monetary Limit

In Provincial Court-Civil, you can sue for an amount up to $25,000.

Type of Claims You Can Not File In The Alberta Small Claims Court?

You can not file a Civil Claim in the Alberta Small Claims Court on matters involving:

1. matters involving ownership of land;

2. matters involving wills, malicious prosecution, false imprisonment or defamation (libel and slander); or

3. matters involving governments.

Time Limits

You should know that, in many cases, you cannot sue after a certain period of time has gone by (the limitation period). The time limit depends on the reason for suing.

For general debt problems, such as contracts, loans, damage deposits and rent you must sue within two years from the time the debt began. An exception to this rule exists: if it has been stated in writing that the person knows the money is still owed, or if the person has paid part of the debt, the two-year limit starts when the debt was last acknowledged.

If you are suing for injuries or damages caused to yourself or your property (for example, assault, car accident, etc.), you must sue within two years of the injury or damages. If you wish to sue your own insurance company for failure to pay you as a result of an accident, you must do so within one year.

Suing The Correct Party

Sometimes people sue the wrong person and, as a result, they lose their case. As a general rule, you are allowed to sue with one Civil Claim form as many people, companies or firms as are involved in the problem.

1. Individual—When suing an individual or group of individuals, use full first and last names of each person you are suing. Do not use initials, because initials do not sufficiently identify the person being sued.

2. Business—If you are suing a business, remember that there are two types of businesses: incorporated and unincorporated. The differences between the two are very important.

3. An incorporated business usually has Limited or Ltd. after its name. (The term company does not necessarily refer to an incorporated business). An incorporated business can be sued only in the name of the business. Put the full name of the business on the Civil Claim.

4. Firms (partnerships of two or more persons) and sole proprietorships are called unincorporated businesses. An unincorporated business must be sued in the name of the owner. Put the owner's full name and the name of the business on the Civil Claim. To find out the owner(s) of an unincorporated business and the address of the owner(s), do a trade name search by contacting an authorized agent for Alberta Registries.

Serving Documents

Once the court has issued the Civil Claim and returned it to you, the next step is to give it to the defendant. This is called service. You must serve a Dispute Note with the Civil Claim on each defendant. When you prepare your claim using Easy Court we will include a blank copy of this form with your purchase.

You may serve the Civil Claim and form of Dispute Note on any day of the week. Someone else may serve the Civil Claim and form of Dispute Note for you.

You (the plaintiff) may also hire a process server to serve the documents on your behalf using our Affiliate Program. If you are successful with the law suit, the court will normally order the unsuccessful party to pay service costs.

Methods of Service

You may serve the Civil Claim and form of Dispute Note on a person by:

1. giving the documents to that person;

2. leaving the documents at that person's most usual residence with a resident who is apparently 16 years of age or older; or

3. mailing the documents by registered mail. The defendant or someone on the defendant's behalf will sign to receive the documents. Keep the original postal receipt. Contact your post office to obtain a Copy of Signature or a Certificate of Delivery Confirmation document.

You may serve the Civil Claim and form of Dispute Note on a corporation by:

1. giving the documents to the president, chairman, head officer or a director of the corporation;

2. giving the documents to a manager, agent or officer of the corporation located where the Civil Claim was issued; or

3. leaving it at or sending it by registered mail to the registered office of the corporation.

4. if service is done by registered mail it is considered to be served 7 days from the date of mailing to an address in Alberta and 14 days if mailed to an address in Canada, outside of Alberta. Obtain a corporate search at an Alberta Registry office to prove to the court that you have properly served the registered office of the corporation.

Dispute Note

If someone has filed a Civil Claim against you, you are called the defendant. You will receive a Civil Claim which tells why you are being sued, by whom, and for how much.

Ignoring the Civil Claim will not make it go away. When you receive a Civil Claim, you must take action. You must either settle the Civil Claim or file a Dispute Note.

Settling Your Dispute

If you feel that you do owe some money to the other party (who is called the plaintiff), but not as much as claimed, offer what you feel is reasonable. If you are unable to pay it all at once, try to arrange a repayment plan with the plaintiff or arrange a payment hearing through the court office. Remind the other party that, by compromising, the time and expense of going to court will be avoided. If an agreement is reached, the plaintiff should also immediately inform the court office in writing that the matter has been settled, or complete and file a Notice of Withdrawal. This form can also be obtained at any court office.

Filing a Dispute Note

If you feel that there are some facts in your favour, do not be reluctant to defend yourself. You can use our service to complete your Dispute Note and delivering it personally, or by mail or by fax where available, to the court office where the Civil Claim was filed within 20 days of being served the Civil Claim (30 days if served outside Alberta). The court office must receive the Dispute Note within the 20- or 30-day time limit. Upon receipt of a valid Dispute Note, the court office will set an appearance date and notify all parties by mail.

You may include in the Dispute Note any counterclaim you may have against the plaintiff if you feel that the plaintiff owes you money. For example, the plaintiff may claim that you caused the accident which damaged the plaintiff's car. Your car was also damaged in the accident and you think that the plaintiff caused the accident. The judge will look at both claims at the same time and decide who owes money to whom.

The Next Steps

Once you file a Dispute note, your matter may be scheduled for an appearance for mediation, pre-trial conference, or trial.

The appearance will be held at the courthouse nearest to:

1. where the cause of action arose; or

2. the place where the defendant or one of the co-defendant's resided or carried on business at the time the Civil Claim was issued.

Search Houses (request title searches, corporate profile reports and more…)

Property Title Search

You can search property titles by name and/or address. This will help you determine property that you are planning to sue owns, the amount of equity in the property and can also help you find addresses to serve a party.

Corporate Profile Report

This tool will enable you to confirm the legal name of a company you want to sue and its officers/directors. You can also find the registered address of the Corporation which will help you when it comes time to serve your documents.

Reverse Look-Up

If you know the telephone number of the person or company you want to sue but do not know the parties address, this tool could help you. If the parties telephone number is listed you can retrieve thier address, using the reverse lookup tool in this site. This will be helpful when it comes time to serve your documents.

Research

This section provides you with instant access to goverment enitites, sites where you can find legislation that may help you prepare your case, links to process servers, paralegals, lawyers and more...

Useful Links

Legal Research

This is site contains links to both provincial and federal legislation in your province. You can also find case law and other search resources that will help you prepare your case.

Legal Help - Process Servers, Paralegals & Lawyers

Coming soon.

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