Terms of use: Claim.ca small claims tool

What the tool is, and what it isn't

The small claims tool helps people and businesses handling an Ontario Small Claims Court claim on their own, whether they are making the claim or responding to one. You write your claim or your Defence and answer questions; the tool keeps it organized and puts your answers on the court's official forms.

• Claim.ca is not a law firm. The tool gives legal information, not legal advice.
• Using the tool doesn't make anyone your lawyer or paralegal. Nobody reviews your claim through the tool or tells you what to do.
• The tool can't tell you whether to make a claim, what to claim, or how your claim might turn out.

If you want advice, a lawyer or licensed paralegal can help. The Law Society of Ontario's referral service can help you find one.

Claim.ca and Lemonade Law

• Claim.ca is a platform operated by Marty Mikhail, a lawyer licensed by the Law Society of Ontario. Legal services are provided by Lemonade Law^™, Marty Mikhail's personal legal practice, practising with Quinn Thiele Mineault Grodzki LLP.
• Using the small claims tool doesn't make Marty Mikhail or Lemonade Law^™ your lawyer. A lawyer and client relationship begins only when it is confirmed in writing.
• Claim.ca's site offers "Get legal help", which takes you to Lemonade Law^™. Asking for that help is separate from the tool: it is up to you, it is handled under Lemonade Law^™'s own terms, and nothing in your small claims files goes with it unless you send it yourself.
• Nobody at Claim.ca reads your files. Your information is looked at only if you ask for help and agree to it, to fix a problem or keep the tool secure, or if the law requires it, and never for anything else. Your files are never shared with Lemonade Law^™. Anyone who works on Claim.ca must agree in writing to keep your information confidential.
• Claim.ca takes no fees for referring people to anyone.
• Because the tool isn't your lawyer, what you enter in it isn't a conversation with your lawyer, and it may not be protected the way those conversations are (this protection is called "solicitor-client privilege"). Claim.ca keeps your information private, as the privacy policy explains.

What you are responsible for

• Your words. You write your answers and your story. The tool puts them on the forms as you wrote them and doesn't add facts. What you file with the court is yours, and it has to be true.
• Checking your forms. Read every form the tool prepares before you sign, serve or file it. If something is wrong, change your answers and prepare the forms again.
• Your deadlines. The tool works out dates from the court rules and what you tell it, and can email you reminders. These are there to help: an email can be late or go missing, and the court's rules and deadlines apply either way. If a deadline matters, you can check it with the court office or a lawyer or paralegal.
• Your copies. Keep your own copies of your forms, documents and anything the court sends you.

The court's forms, rules and fees

The tool uses the official forms published by the Government of Ontario and fills in their blanks without changing them. The forms, the court rules, interest rates and court fees can change. Claim.ca works to keep up with them, but can't promise that everything is always current. The court office decides whether to accept a document. Court fees are paid to the court, not to Claim.ca.

Your own claims only

You can use the tool for your own claim, or for a claim of a business you own or work for. The tool isn't for agencies that pursue money owed to others, or for anyone who handles other people's claims as a business. Only lawyers and licensed paralegals can represent other people for a fee.

People under 18

A person under 18 needs a litigation guardian to make or defend a claim, in most cases. The tool doesn't cover litigation guardians: when a claim needs one, it says so and doesn't prepare the forms.

Your account

• You sign in with a link Claim.ca emails you. Keep your email account secure: anyone who can open your email can sign in as you.
• An account is for one person. Please give a real email address, and tell Claim.ca at [email protected] if you think someone else has used your account.
• What you enter stays yours. Claim.ca uses it only to run the tool for you, as the privacy policy explains. You can download a copy of everything in your account, and delete a file, or your account and all its files, at any time.

Using the tool fairly

Please don't use the tool to make a claim you know is false, to harass or threaten anyone, to break the law, or to get into, overload or copy Claim.ca's systems. Claim.ca can suspend or close an account that does.

Free while in beta

The tool is free while in beta. Claim.ca may change, add or remove features, or end the beta. If Claim.ca plans to charge for anything, it will tell you before you have to pay, and you can choose not to. If the tool is going to close, Claim.ca will tell you by email first, so you can download your forms and your information.

No liability

The tool is provided as it is. Claim.ca works to make it accurate and available, but can't promise it will always be available, free of mistakes, or right for your claim. To the extent the law allows, Claim.ca and Marty Mikhail are not responsible for any loss or damage that comes from using the tool, including the result of your claim, a deadline that is missed, or a court office refusing a document.

Nothing in these terms takes away rights you have under Ontario's Consumer Protection Act, 2002, or any other law that can't be changed by agreement.

Changes to these terms

If Claim.ca changes these terms, it will post the new version with its date and, for important changes, email you before they apply. If you keep using the tool after that, the new terms apply. If you don't agree, you can stop using the tool and delete your account.

Ending

You can stop using the tool at any time, and delete your account from your files page. Claim.ca can close an account that breaks these terms, and will tell you why unless the law prevents it.

The law that applies

These terms are governed by the laws of Ontario and of Canada that apply there. Any dispute about them goes to the courts of Ontario.

English and French

These terms are available in English and French. Both versions are equally valid.

Contact

Email [email protected], or write to Marty Mikhail, Claim.ca, 310 O'Connor Street, Ottawa ON K2P 1V8.