What To Do If You Have Been Sued

This article is for Canadians who have been sued or who are concerned that they will be sued in the near future.

A creditor will sue an individual over an unpaid account because if the creditor's lawsuit is successful it will gain access to extraordinary remedies including placing a lien on the debtor's real property, doing a garnishment of the debtor's wages and bank accounts, as well as potentially seizing some of the debtor's property.

The bottom line is that if a creditor can obtain a judgment against a debtor then it should be in a better position in its attempts to recover monies owing on an unpaid account.

If your creditor wants to sue you then it must first prepare a document generically referred to as a claim and then have it served on you so that you are aware of the claim and are given the opportunity to defend it.

The exact name of your creditor's claim will depend upon the province in which you live. It may also depend upon the court in which your claim is to be heard. Most provinces have two courts where civil claims are heard. The majority of Canadian provinces have a small claims court where claims beyond a particular dollar ceiling are heard. Provinces will also have a higher court where claims for higher dollar amounts must be heard.

In most provinces when your creditor sues you it will be referred to as the plaintiff. Furthermore, in most provinces where your creditor sues you then you will be referred to as the defendant.

Each court has rules as to what constitutes valid service of a plaintiff's claim. In addition, each court has rules governing how much time a defendant has to file a defence. In most provinces this period is in the three to four week range.

i. Three ways that a creditor (plaintiff) can obtain a judgment against a debtor (defendant)

There are three different avenues for a plaintiff to obtain a judgment against a defendant in a civil lawsuit.

Firstly, if a defendant does not file a defence in a timely manner then a plaintiff can obtain a default judgment against the defendant. Secondly, sometimes a plaintiff will go before a judge prior to a trial and persuade the judge that the defendant's defence is without merits in which case the plaintiff will obtain a judgment. Finally, a judge may award a judgment to the plaintiff against a defendant after a trial.

You may prefer absorbing information by watching a video as opposed to reading an article in which case you might want to watch a YouTube video on the Debt Coach Silverthorn channel titled "What to do if I have been sued (Canada)".

I have spoken with many Canadians who are beside themselves because they have been sued.