To file a small claim in Toronto: send a demand letter first, confirm you are within the two-year limitation period, identify the defendant's exact legal name, prepare a Plaintiff's Claim (Form 7A) with your key documents attached, file it online through Ontario's Small Claims filing portal with the $108 fee, then serve each defendant within six months using a permitted service method and file the Affidavit of Service. The defendant then has 20 days to file a Defence before default proceedings become available.
- Send a demand letter first — a real share of Toronto disputes end for the price of a stamp.
- The two-year limitation period is the hard gate: confirm it before anything else.
- Sue the exact legal entity — corporate-name errors are the classic self-represented fatal flaw.
- File the Form 7A online with the $108 fee; attach the documents that prove the claim.
- Serve within six months by a permitted method, then file the Affidavit of Service — unserved claims go nowhere.
- Claim prejudgment interest and costs in the claim — unpleaded amounts are unawarded amounts.
Before Filing: The Three Gates
Three checks precede every well-filed Toronto claim. Gate one — the demand letter: a dated, businesslike letter stating the amount, the basis, and a payment deadline resolves a meaningful share of disputes outright, and its refusal becomes Exhibit A on reasonableness later. Build one in minutes with the demand letter generator, and remember the letter does not pause the limitation clock. Gate two — the limitation period: most claims die two years after you discovered them; run your dates through the limitation period calculator and, if the deadline is near, file first and negotiate after. Gate three — the economics: value the claim with the Small Claims Court calculator, assess whether the defendant can actually pay, and let the should-I-sue wizard pressure-test the decision. Filing is cheap; a year of litigating an uncollectable claim is not.
Naming the Defendant Correctly
The single most consequential box on the form. Sue a person: full legal name. Sue a business: the exact registered entity — “2384756 Ontario Inc. operating as Sunrise Renovations,” not the Instagram handle on the truck. Toronto is full of trade names layered over numbered companies, and a judgment against a name that does not legally exist is expensive wallpaper. Corporate profile searches and business name searches through the provincial registry cost little and answer the question definitively — the process, including serving corporations at their registered office, is the subject of our companion guide to suing a Toronto business. When in doubt, name the reasonable candidates in the alternative; amending later is possible but costs months.
Preparing the Form 7A
The Plaintiff's Claim (Form 7A) has one job: tell a stranger — the deputy judge — what happened, what it cost you, and why this defendant owes it. The craft: plead chronologically with dates (the agreement, the breach, the demand); state the amount and how it is calculated; and attach the core documents — the contract or quote, the invoices, the key messages, photos of the defective work. Attachments are not optional garnish: a claim that arrives proving itself reads differently at every later stage, from the defendant's settlement calculus to the conference. Keep editorializing out; facts with exhibits beat adjectives without them. For the fuller drafting craft — and everything after filing — our steps-to-sue guide goes deeper.
Pleading the Amount, Interest & Costs
Three numbers belong in every claim. The principal — capped at $50,000, with any excess expressly abandoned if you are trimming to stay in the court. Prejudgment interest — claim it from the date the money became owed, at your contract's rate if one exists or the Courts of Justice Act rate otherwise (the prejudgment interest calculator does the math); unclaimed interest is simply lost. And costs — plead recovery of filing fees, service disbursements, and representation costs, the framework the court costs calculator estimates. Round-number damages with no supporting math are the mark of a claim that will be discounted; a number built from invoices and quotes is a number a deputy judge can award.
A worked example makes the discipline concrete. A Toronto kitchen contractor is owed a final invoice of $18,400, unpaid since March 1. The claim pleads the $18,400 principal, supported by the signed contract and the invoice; prejudgment interest at the contract's stated 12% per year — roughly $2,208 annually, about $184 for every month the defendant delays — from March 1 to the date of judgment; and costs: the $108 filing fee, roughly $150 for a process server, and representation costs under the Rule 19.04 framework. Every element is either a document in the package or an arithmetic line a clerk or deputy judge can verify in seconds. Compare the same case pleaded as “$25,000 for breach of contract and stress” — no interest claim, no cost particulars, a round number with $6,600 of unexplained padding — and you can see why the first version settles early and the second grinds toward a discounted judgment. The form rewards accountants, not poets.
Filing Online: Portal & Fees
Toronto claims file through Ontario's Small Claims Court online filing portal: create an account, enter the parties and claim details, upload the Form 7A package, and pay the $108 filing fee ($228 for frequent claimants filing ten or more claims a year). The system issues the claim electronically — stamped and ready for service — usually without any courthouse visit; the counter at 47 Sheppard remains available for those who prefer paper or hit portal edge-cases. Fee waivers exist for litigants who financially qualify. Calendar two dates the moment the claim issues: the six-month service deadline, and your own follow-up to file proof of service — the deadlines the Small Claims deadline calculator tracks from any event in the case.
Serving the Defendant
Service is where self-represented cases stall. The rules in brief: an individual is served personally (hand the copy to them) or by alternatives the rules permit — including leaving it with an adult at their residence and mailing a second copy the same or following day. A corporation is served by leaving the claim with an officer, director, or person apparently in control at its place of business, or at its registered office. Toronto practice tip: a professional process server costs modest money, finishes in days, and produces a clean affidavit — for evasive defendants it is the best value line item in the case. Where a defendant genuinely cannot be served by any permitted method, the court can order substituted service — email, courier, a relative — on a motion showing your diligent attempts. What service is not: texting a PDF and hoping. Defective service voids everything built on it, including default judgments.
Geography adds wrinkles worth knowing. A defendant who lives or carries on business outside Toronto can still be sued here where the events happened in the city, and the service rules travel with the claim — a process server in Barrie or Vancouver serves an Ontario claim the same way one does on the Danforth. The six-month service window is generous but not decorative: defendants move, companies change registered offices, and every month of drift makes the address in your file staler. Serve early — ideally within weeks of issuance — while your address intelligence is fresh, and if the window is genuinely about to close on an unserved defendant, a motion can extend it on evidence of real efforts. Timing has a tactical face too: service starts the defendant's 20-day clock, so serving on the eve of your own three-week vacation hands the file its first dead month. Serve when you are ready to run the next steps on schedule.
Proof of Service & What Follows
Service without proof is service that did not happen, as far as the file is concerned: complete and file the Affidavit of Service (Form 8A) for each defendant, stating who served whom, when, where, and how. From valid service, the machinery runs on its own clock: the defendant's 20 days to file a Defence; default proceedings available after that (the path our Toronto default judgment guide walks); or, with a Defence filed, the settlement conference notice — and the case-proper begins, as mapped in our complete Toronto Small Claims guide. File the affidavit promptly even when the defendant has clearly received the claim — clerks process what is in the file, not what everyone knows.
The Filing Errors That Sink Cases
From years of inheriting broken files, the recurring five: the wrong defendant — trade name instead of corporation, one spouse instead of the contracting party; expired limitation periods discovered after months of drafting; service shortcuts — ordinary mail to individuals, PDFs by text — that void the default judgment obtained on them; unpleaded interest and costs, silently donating hundreds or thousands; and kitchen-sink claims that bury a clean $18,000 invoice under $30,000 of speculative add-ons, spending credibility the core claim needed. Every one is preventable in the drafting hour. Our Toronto Small Claims team files claims daily — flat-fee drafting and filing for clients who want the foundation professionally poured, full representation for those who want the whole build. Either way: pour the foundation right, and 47 Sheppard is a remarkably effective machine for getting paid.
Frequently Asked Questions
Confirm the limitation period, send a demand letter, identify the defendant's exact legal name, prepare a Plaintiff's Claim (Form 7A) with supporting documents attached, and file it through Ontario's online Small Claims filing portal with the $108 fee. Then serve each defendant within six months and file the Affidavit of Service.
Yes — online filing is the standard route: the portal takes the claim details and documents, processes the fee, and issues the claim electronically without a courthouse visit. The counter at 47 Sheppard Avenue East remains available as an alternative, and fee waivers exist for those who qualify financially.
$108 for most plaintiffs, $228 for frequent claimants (ten or more claims per year at the same court). Later steps — motions, default judgment, setting a trial date, enforcement — carry their own set fees. Filing and service costs are generally recoverable from the defendant if you win.
The ones that prove it: the contract, quote, or agreement; invoices and proof of payment; the key emails or texts; photos of defective work or damage; and the demand letter. A claim that arrives with its evidence attached reads stronger at every stage — to the defendant, at the settlement conference, and at trial.
Individuals: personal service, or the permitted alternatives (such as leaving it with an adult at the residence plus mailing a copy). Corporations: leave the claim with an officer, director, or person in control at the business, or at the registered office. A professional process server is inexpensive and produces a clean affidavit. Improper service voids what follows it.
Document your attempts and bring a motion for substituted service — the court can authorize service by email, courier, social media, or through a relative where a permitted method is impracticable. What you cannot do is skip the step: an unserved claim cannot proceed, and the six-month service window keeps running.
Yes — it is the most consequential detail in the filing. Businesses in Toronto commonly operate trade names over numbered corporations; a judgment against a non-entity is unenforceable. Run corporate and business-name searches through the provincial registry before filing, and name alternative candidate entities where genuine doubt exists.
Always — from the date the money became owed, at your contract's rate or the Courts of Justice Act rate. Interest must be pleaded to be awarded, and over a year or two of litigation it becomes real money. Plead your costs — filing, service, representation — as well.
File the Affidavit of Service, then the clock runs: the defendant has 20 days to file a Defence. No Defence opens the default path — noting in default and, for fixed-sum claims, default judgment. A Defence triggers the mandatory settlement conference, typically scheduled within about 90 days.
Yes — limited-scope retainers for drafting, filing, and service are common and inexpensive relative to their value: the foundation (defendant, claim, amounts, service) is where cases are structurally won or lost. Full representation through to conference, trial, and enforcement is available where the file warrants it. Consultations are free.