pdf version of guide no. 5 – delivery of documents
It is important that you have read Guide #1 to Small Claims Court: What is Small Claims Court?, before reading this guide.
There is a lot of paperwork involved in almost any lawsuit and it is important that copies of the documents reach everyone who needs them. that’s why there are rules about what you need to do to make sure everyone gets those copies.
Passing paperwork from one person to another is called “serving documents.” This guide explains the small claims court rules for service of documents and tries to answer some of the questions you may have. if you are enforcing an order, go to question #7: “what about other documents?” in this guide.
Note: Occasionally, the Attorney General’s Office and the Provincial Court run pilot projects to explore ways to improve the small claims court. If the registry where your case is filed is running a pilot project, it may not follow the process in this guide. You can find more information in the pilot project processes or in your court record.
- How do I serve a Notice of Demand or Civil Settlement Court Notice of Demand?
- What do I have to give the Defendant or the other party?
- What if the defendant or another party is out of the province?
- How long do I have to serve the Notice of Complaint or Notice of Civil Settlement Court?
- Do I have to deliver it myself?
- what if I can’t serve the defendant or the other party?
- what about other documents?
- how do I prove they are did you deliver a document?
- How do I change my address for the service?
1. How do I serve a Notice of Lawsuit or Civil Settlement Court Notice of Lawsuit?
The Notice of Claim or Civil Settlement Court Notice of Claim is the first official notice of the lawsuit that the defendant (the person who is suing) will have. For this reason, the rules require that we take special care to make sure that the defendant or another party actually receives service.
At this point, the person filing the claim (either the claimant or the party filing the claim) may not have the correct address for the defendant or the other party, so sending it by regular mail is not enough . the type of defendant or other party involved will determine your next step.
if the defendant or other party is an individual
If you are suing an adult, the two methods of service available are:
- personalized service and
- service by certified mail
To serve a document personally, you or someone acting on your behalf will simply serve the document on the defendant or the other party. if the person refuses to take it, you can drop it on the ground at their feet.
To deliver a document by certified mail, you will need to provide proof of delivery (see question #8 in this guide for more details).
If the defendant or another party is under the age of 19, different service procedures apply. you may need to seek legal advice as supreme court rules guide this process.
if the defendant or other party is a business
You will already know the address of the company’s registered office. This is the address you got from the business search printout and put on the Notice of Claim or Notice of Claim from the Civil Settlement Court. all you have to do is send it there by certified mail. You will need to provide proof of service (see question #8 on how to prove the document was served). or you can take it there personally and leave it at the registered office. Another way to serve a company is to take it to the company’s place of business and leave it with the person who appears to be in charge there. You can also leave it with the director or officer of the company. and finally, if the company has a bankrupt trustee, liquidator, or trustee-administrator, you can leave it with that person.
if the defendant or another party is registered in b.c. As an extra-provincial company (its main office is outside the province), you can leave the documents with the person designated to be your agent, according to article 389 of the commercial companies law. alternatively, you can send these documents to the attorney by certified mail. You would get this information from the corporate registry (see Small Claims Court Guide #2: Filing a Claim for Proceedings Initiated in Small Claims).
if the defendant or other party is a partnership
A company does not have a registered office. To serve a partnership, you can take the documents to the place of business and leave it with a receptionist or the person who appears to be in charge. or you can send documents by certified mail to, or leave it with, a partner. You will need to provide proof of service (see question #8 on how to prove the document was served).
if the defendant or other party is an unincorporated company
If you are suing a business that is neither a corporation nor a partnership, you will name the owner of the business as the defendant. this is the person you should notify and the rules for serving a person apply.
if the respondent or another party is a municipality
If you are suing a municipality, you must leave a copy of the documents with the clerk or deputy clerk or an officer. the municipal law has special notice periods and very short prescription periods. the registry will not be able to provide this information and you may need legal advice.
If the defendant or other party is a youth, a partnership, an unincorporated association, or a union if you are suing any of these, there are special rules about the service. the registry staff can help you with this. See Small Claims Court Civil Rules, Rules 1.1, 2, and 18, for more specific information on service of documents.
if the defendant is the province of british columbia
if you are suing the province of british columbia, you can serve the notice of claim in person by leaving it with a lawyer during business hours at:
Legal Services Branch, Department of the Attorney General, 1st Floor, 1001 Douglas Street, Victoria, B.C.
You can also send the notice of claim by certified mail to the following address:
deputy attorney general ministry of the attorney general p.o. box 9290 stn prov govt victoria, b.c. v8w 9j7
2. What do I have to give the defendant or the other party?
if you are submitting a notice of claim:
will give the defendant, by whatever method you are using:
- defendant’s copy of the notice of claim, a copy of their address for the service form; and
- a blank response form (form 2) and a blank address form for service (scl057). this is what the defendant will use to answer your claim.
if you are serving a civil settlement court claim notice:
will give to the other party(ies), by whatever method you are using:
- the other party’s copy of the civil settlement court’s notice of claim, a copy of their address for the notice form;
- a copy of the following documents filed with the notice
- all notices of initiation received by the party submitting the request; and
- all responses received or made by the requesting party; and
- one of the following:
- a certificate provided by the crt indicating that the crt process is complete; or
- a notice provided by the crt that the crt refuses to settle the claim; or
- a copy of the provincial court’s order that the crt not adjudicate the claim and a blank answer, if any, and a blank service address form. this is what the other party(ies) will use to respond to your claim.
If there is more than one defendant or other party, you must serve each with their own copy of the applicable documents. this means that if you are serving two parties at the same address by mail, you must serve separate notices and obtain separate proofs of service for each defendant or other party (see question #8 on proving service was document).
3. what if the defendant or another party is out of the province?
If the person you are suing normally lives in British Columbia but is away (for example, working a job in Calgary), you can serve them just as you would a person in B.C. If the person lives outside of B.C. but the transaction or event that gave rise to the claim occurred in B.C., you can notify your documents in the ordinary way.
A notice of suit or notice of suit from the civil settlement court may also be served on a corporation that has assets in B.C. but is incorporated outside of b.c. and it is not an extraprovincial company.
You may leave a copy of the appropriate documents at the corporation’s place of business with the person listed in charge there. You can also leave a copy with a director, officer, liquidator, trustee in bankruptcy, or receiver of the corporation. finally, you can serve the notice of lawsuit or notice of court of civil resolution by certified mail. You will need to provide proof of delivery (see question #8 in this guide on how to prove that the document has been delivered).
in any other case, you will need to get permission from the clerk of court before you can serve a notice of lawsuit or notice of a court of civil settlement outside b.c.
If you are serving a Notice of Lawsuit or Notice of Civil Settlement Court outside the province, there is an important rule you need to know: the deadline to file an answer is 30 days from the date it is served. service to the defendant or another party outside b.c.
4. How long do I have to deliver the Notice of Lawsuit or Notice of Civil Settlement Court?
After you’ve filed your notice of claim, you have one year to deliver it. if you filed a civil settlement court notice, you have 28 days to serve it. it is possible to renew a notice of claim after it has expired, but you would have to file an application with the court and explain why. If you are having trouble serving the notice and the time limit is almost up, you must submit your renewal application at that time, before the deadline.
5. do I have to serve it myself?
no, you don’t. you can send it by certified mail, leave it in an office or have someone serve it to you. sometimes the distance makes it inconvenient or impossible for you to deliver your documents. or it can be an uncomfortable or even dangerous situation. In any of these cases, if sending it by certified mail doesn’t work, there are professional process servers that will personally serve the defendant or the other party for you, for a fee. you can get the name of a process server in your area from an online search.
or you can ask a friend to do it for you. If the defendant or another party is in another city, you may be able to mail the papers to a friend there and have them serve them.
Just remember that if the defendant or another party does not file an answer and you want to get an order of default, you will need to file a certificate signed by whoever served the document. if you use certified mail, you must obtain a proof of delivery attached to your proof of delivery that is on file with the registry (see question #8 on obtaining proof of delivery).
6. What if I can’t serve the defendant or the other party?
When you go to serve your papers, the defendant or another party may have moved and they can’t find you. or maybe the defendant or another party knows that you are trying to serve the notice and is avoiding it. in any case, there is something you can do.
You can apply to the small claims court recorder to allow you to serve the papers in some other way. what this other form is will depend on the circumstances. For example, if you know where the defendant or other party lives, but they refuse to come to the door, or arrange not to be there every time you knock, you can get permission to serve the notice by taping it to the front of the door. defendant or the other party. door.
If you know that the defendant or the other party lives in a certain city but you can’t find out the address, you can get permission to serve notice by posting a legal notice in the classifieds section of your local newspaper. this can be an expensive option, so think twice before ordering.
In some situations, the registrar may allow you to deliver the claim notice, address for service, blank response, and blank address for service or claim notice, attachments, blank response, and blank address form for service, if applicable, by:
- leave it with a relative of the respondent or another party;
- send it by regular mail;
- send it by email; or
- by leaving it at the last known address of the defendant or the other party.
Alternate methods of service are sometimes called service substitution: that is, they are substituted for the normal method.
The more you know about the circumstances of the defendant or the other party, the better. the registrar will issue an order allowing service in the manner most likely to attract the attention of the defendant or the other party. before ordering some other method of serving, you should already have tried several times to serve it in the normal way. be prepared to give details of how you tried to serve the document and what happened, and why the notification method you are requesting will be successful.
Normally, the registrar will issue an order allowing some other method of service, and you must serve a copy of that order on the defendant or other party along with the documents, unless the ordered method is service by publicity in the newspaper.
A registrar that allows some other method of service will very often give the defendant or the other party more time to file a reply. if that happens, be sure to cross out the 14 days on the notice and insert the number of days ordered by the registrar.
7. what about other documents?
once the documents listed in #2: “what do I have to give the defendant or the other party” have been served, serving everything else becomes a fairly simple matter.
If the defendant or another party files an address form for service, their mailing and/or email address will appear on it. then all you have to do with most of the documents after that is send them by regular mail or by email, if an address was provided for the email service. the exceptions are notification to a third party, summons to a payment hearing, and summons to a default hearing; An address for service form will also include an address where the party(ies) can be served in person.
From then on, it is always up to each person involved in the case to ensure that the court and the other parties have their current address by submitting a current address form for notice.
make a note of the time limits. If you deliver a document by regular mail, it is considered to be delivered 14 days after it is sent. email service is considered completed on the day of shipment if the document is emailed before 4:00 p.m. m. or the next day that is not a Saturday, Sunday, or holiday if the document is emailed after 4:00 p.m. m. so be sure to keep track of the date you mail or email the documents. You can always choose to deliver a document in person or by certified mail if you wish.
8. How do I prove that a document has been served?
That depends on who delivered the document and how.
If you or someone else served the document in person, you can prove it by presenting a certificate of service. the certificate simply says who delivered the document and how and when it was delivered. a service certificate is printed on the back of the service copy of most of your documents.
If the document was notified to a lawyer or student columnist, it is enough to present a copy of the document signed by the lawyer or student or by a partner or employee of the firm. most attorneys have a rubber stamp that says something like “service is hereby acknowledged.” the attorney then signs and dates it.
If the document was served by certified mail, you must submit a certificate of delivery, a copy of the document that was mailed attached to the certificate, and proof of service to show that the document was served.
Proof of service can be obtained by certified mail by calling toll-free 1 888 550-6333 and requesting a copy of the signature or by accessing the Canada Post website and printing the delivery confirmation form.
>
if a document is sent via email, you will need to provide the printout of the first page of the email message which includes the name of the sender, the recipients email address, the date the email was sent and the time the email was sent. .
If the hard copy does not include the document name as an email attachment, a copy of the emailed document must be attached to the proof of service document.
If there is more than one defendant or other party, a separate certificate of service must be prepared for each defendant or other party. You can request additional copies of the service certificate from the registry to attach to the service copy of the document you served.
If you served a summons for a payment hearing or a summons for a default hearing, you will file an affidavit of service instead of a certificate of service.
9. How do I change my address for the service?
It’s up to you to make sure the court and the other parties to the lawsuit always have your correct address so they can serve you the papers. You must make sure that your correct address is listed on the Address for Service form, the Notice of Lawsuit form, or the Civil Settlement Court Notice form (if you are the plaintiff or filing party), or the address for service or response (if you are the defendant or another party). If your address changes at any time after you submit and serve these documents, you must complete a new address form for notification. then you must send this form to all other parties in the case; that is, plaintiffs, defendants, other parties and third parties, if any, and the court record.
If you don’t notify the registry and the other parties involved of your address change, they have the right to continue to ship things to your old address and it won’t be possible to keep you informed about what’s happening in your case.