Our firm is fortunate to count Murray Brown, a Licensed Paralegal in Ontario, as one of our team members. Murray handles all of our Small Claims matters and is an amazing litigator with over 20 years of experience.
Murray took a lot of vacation this month, in no small part as he knows a surge is about to hit him as the Ontario Small Claims limit increases from $35,000.00 to $ 50,000.00 on October 1, 2025.
Murray is also confident this will be a disaster, as am I.
During the week of September 8, Murray attended a settlement conference for a file in the Richmond Hill Small Claims Court. The earliest trial date offered was in 2027.
Small Claims Court is understaffed at the Deputy Judge level and if you’ve read my LinkedIn posts this year, you’ll also know that the ones who have been recently hired have not been supported with the proper education for Judges leading to matters proceeding where they are actually stayed by bankruptcy and requiring Plaintiffs to hire “skip tracers” to find people to serve instead of relying on Driver’s Licence searches as evidence of last known address with the Government.
Our Small Claims is about to be as efficient as our Human Rights Tribunal, which has also ground to a screeching halt.
Increasing the Small Claims limit without increasing the Deputy Judges and training is a way to bring the administration of Justice into disrepute, and we don’t need more of that right now.
Inga B. Andriessen, Managing Lawyer