The BC Provincial Court’s Small Claims Court is used for claims involving amounts of $5,001 to $35,000. The court process is a bit more accessible than Supreme Court to allow for individuals to represent themselves where a lawyer may be cost-prohibitive. In this post, we set out our cost-effective approach for helping you navigate Small Claims Court.

What are Unbundled Legal Services?

Unbundled legal services, also known as limited scope representation, allows for individuals to hire a lawyer for a specific task rather than full representation throughout the entire legal process. This approach provides flexibility and cost-savings, making legal assistance more accessible where traditional representation could be too costly for the claim.

With this program, our firm does not go on record with the court. What this means is that the court and the other party to the dispute (or their lawyer) will correspond with you directly and you can decide how much or how little assistance you need from us as you go.

Demand Letter

Before commencing a lawsuit, you typically will want to send a formal demand letter. These letters can be crucial for encouraging a settlement before incurring the costs and stress of an official court case.

For claims valued up to $15,000 with minimal documents to review, our standard fee is $750 plus tax. For claims valued $15,001 to $35,000, our standard fee is $1,000 plus tax. A further adjustment may be made depending on the quantity of documents required to review and complexity of the claim.

Notice of Claim & Service

The Notice of Claim begins a lawsuit and typically comes after the demand letter has been sent and has not been responded to or has been responded to but yields an unsatisfactory outcome.

This document contains the facts of your case, the legal materials your case will rely upon, and the damages you are seeking. Once drafted and reviewed it is submitted for filing with the court registry for filing. Once a filed copy is received back it is required to be served on the opposing party.

For drafting, filing and serving a Notice of Claim our standard fee is $1,750 plus tax.

For just drafting the Notice of Claim, our standard fee is $1,500 plus tax. This means that you would be in charge of filing the Notice of Claim and serving the Notice of Claim on the defendant(s).

REPLY to Claim

If you have been served a Notice of Claim, you have 14 days in which to respond to, file and serve the response to the claim against you. This document sets out the parts of the claim you acknowledge, the parts you deny, and the parts you have no position on. Further, it allows you to get your position (your side of the story) on record. There is also an opportunity to either file a counterclaim against the claimant and/or another person if you feel that other person (called Third Party) bears some or all of the liability for the claim against you.

To assist in drafting, filing and serving a Reply our standard fee is $1,500 plus tax.

For just drafting the Reply, our standard fee is $1,250 plus tax. This means that you would be in charge of filing and serving the Reply on the claimant(s).

Default Judgment

If a Reply is not filed, the claimant may proceed with obtaining a default judgement. This means that the court will give the claimant an order for what they want without the defendant getting to defend themselves. A default judgement can also be granted if the defendant does not attend a settlement conference.

To assist in drafting, filing and serving a Default Judgement our standard fee is $750 plus tax.

For just drafting the Default Judgement application, our standard fee is $500 plus tax. This means that you would be in charge of filing and serving the Default Judgement on the defendant(s).

Document Disclosure & Settlement Conference

Once the Reply is filed, a Settlement Conference will be held. The registry schedules the Settlement Conference and sends all parties a Notice of Settlement Conference. The registry must serve the notice at least 28 days before the Settlement Conference. Settlement Conferences will usually take place using Microsoft Teams. They are scheduled for one hour.

Document Disclosure

An important step before attending the Settlement Conference is the exchange of relevant documents between the parties. All documents must be submitted to the registry at least 14 days before the Settlement Conference and served on the other parties at least 7 days before the Settlement Conference.

For assistance in reviewing the claim, determining what documents are necessary to either prove or disprove the claim, submitting the documents to the registry and serving the documents on the other party, our standard fee is $750 plus tax.

For just reviewing the claim, and assisting you in determining which documents to submit, our standard fee is $500 plus tax. This means that you would be in charge of submitting and serving the documents prior to the Settlement Conference.

Settlement Conference

A Settlement Conference provides both parties the opportunity to sit with a Provincial Court judge to explore ways to settle their case without going to trial. Settlement Conferences are mandatory for most cases started by a Notice of Claim and can be an effective venue to reach a resolution.

To assist you in preparing for the Settlement Conference, our standard fee is $750 plus tax. This excludes fees associated with document disclosure.

If you would like us to attend the Settlement Conference, then we also need to be involved in document disclosure. For reviewing the claim, determining which documents are necessary to either prove or disprove the claim, filing the documents, serving the documents, preparing and attending the Settlement Conference, our standard fee is $1,250 plus tax.

Trial

If you have not settled your matter through mediation or a Settlement Conference, your matter will be scheduled for trial. A trial is where both parties have the opportunity to present their case with witnesses and documents in court and a judge will make a binding final decision.

We estimate a range of $2,000 to $4,000 per day in legal fees for us to prepare for and attend trial with you, however we would need to assess closer to the time based on your particular matter.

We can also assist in preparing you for trial (i.e. do not attend court but work with you in the background). This could include reviewing documents, researching case law, preparing opening and closing statements, and preparing questions for witnesses. We estimate a range of $2,000 to $5,000, depending on the number of days of trial and the complexity of the matter. We would need to assess as trial is approaching based on your particular matter.

In either case, it is important if you reach out early so we can either confirm the dates work in our calendar or that we put space in for time to meet with you ahead of or during trial.

What factors may impact Legal Fees?

The fees set out above are based on “standard” disputes and are limited to our fees for time. This does not include disbursements, which are out-of-pocket expenses such as printing and filing fees that we may incur on your behalf; you will be responsible for disbursements in addition to legal fees. If your matter involves more complex issues, including significant documents, witnesses to track down or correspondence needing to be reviewed, and actual time spent exceeds the standard fee then we will revert to hourly billing. We will be transparent and keep you informed about costs throughout the course of the dispute.