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Increase Your Chances of Success in Small Claims

09/14/2024 | Independent Investigation Services | Uncategorized

How can a Private Investigator help with your small claims suit?

Often people get ripped off by shady business operators or companies that do shoddy work and they take no recourse because there is an assumption that getting your money back is next to impossible. It is true that it may be difficult, but perhaps not as difficult as you may think.

In Saskatchewan, Small Claims cannot exceed $50,000 in value. Disputes involving title to land, slander, libel, bankruptcy, false imprisonment or malicious prosecution must be handled at Kings Bench. But just about everything else can be litigated in Small Claims Court without incurring the expense of legal counsel.

The 5 steps to starting an action in Small Claims Court:

Write a demand letter to the person/business you intend to sue.
Properly name the defendant.
Bring the information, including documents and photographs, to the Clerk of the Provincial Court.
Pay the court fees ($100).
Once the judge has approved the action, they will issue a summons to the defendant, which you must serve upon them.

A Private investigator can assist you in properly identifying the business or person that is the subject of your lawsuit and even locate them for you so that you may serve them with the summons to get them before a judge for the hearing. A private investigator may also be able to assist you in putting together your case by collecting evidence or other activities that will aid you in presenting your case.

Once your matter has gone through the small claims process, if successful, you will receive a judgement. This is the award the judge gives you. But it is still your responsibility to take certain steps to collect. You must follow these steps:

Issue your judgement.
Register the Judgment with the Judgment Registry.
Register the Judgment with the Land Titles Registry.
Search the Judgment Registry for other Judgments and Enforcement Instructions that may be registered against the Judgment Debtor.
Give the Sheriff an Enforcement Instruction. It is this step where a private investigator can assist you. You must be specific in your direction to the Sheriff as to how you want the judgement to be enforced. You may specify:
1. To seize any wages or salary owed to the Judgment Debtor from the following employer: name and address of the employer.
2. To seize the Judgment Debtor’s bank account at name and branch of a bank.
3. To seize the Judgment Debtor’s crops located on: provide a legal description of farmland.
4. You must also provide a list of the Judgment Debtor’s property that might be available for seizure and its location to the best of your information. Include in the list any property the Judgment Debtor may jointly own with another person.

It is at this stage that hiring a private investigator will assist you in identifying any specific property or assets that the defendant may have and their location so that you may direct the Sheriff to enforce your judgement upon those assets or property. Your chance of getting enforcement action is drastically improved when you can provide the Sheriff with very specific information, which may be very difficult for you to obtain on your own.

Often getting a judgement against a defendant can be the easy part of the process, but actually getting paid is the hard part and can be time consuming. Judgements can stay on the Judgement Registry for up to 10 years and can be added for another 10 years based on an application to extend them. This is reflective of the number of judgements that go unenforced due to specific information on the defendant’s holdings not being available.

This signifies that the collecting is often the hardest part. Your chances of collecting can be greatly increased with a thorough investigation by a private investigator to locate the defendant, their property or assets and the physical locations of those assets. It is noteworthy that you can also apply to have the costs of that investigation applied to your judgement, which would cause any costs incurred by the investigation to be born by the defendant.