December 31, 2025: 2025 – 2026 and the passage of time (and limitation periods!)

Happy 2026! I hope your 2025 was a happy, healthy, and productive one.  Maybe you already did a year end review of your business.  Maybe that awaits you in 2026.  While you are doing so, you will want to consider whether there are any claims you should pursue.  Consider, for example, collecting on accounts receivable.

Delay is generally not a good idea. I am not saying that you should immediately commence a claim to collect on an invoice if it is not paid after 31 days.  I do recommend that you have a process where you send the invoice, collect payment, and if payment is not received you follow up (perhaps after 30 days, after 60 days…).  However, on a practical level, the longer those invoices are not paid, the less likely you are to get paid.  Sometimes, a client generated Email or a simple call is enough to prompt payment.  Often times, a demand letter from a lawyer is enough to achieve that same result.  What about the other accounts receivable?  The ones you might have left until “tomorrow” or “when there is some down time” but you never actually got to.

Time will be your enemy.  Firstly, documents get misplaced and memories fade. Secondly, even if you have good documentation and excellent memory, time will eventually kill your ability to collect on aged accounts receivable.  The Limitations Act  sets important time periods within which a claim to collect on a debt must be commenced.  In terms of collecting accounts receivable, that time period is two years from the date that the claim is discovered (s. 4).  The time period can extend if there is an acknowledgement or part payment towards the debt before the limitation period expires (s. 13).  After that 2-year period, the debtor can plead the Limitations Act as a complete defence.  This is general, and although it seems pretty straightforward, the application of the Limitations Act can get technical and complicated.  When does the two-year time period start to run?  What does that acknowledgement of debt need to look like?

Best solution: do not delay and do not let time become your enemy.  I have clients come to me when it was too late and the limitation period had expired; I have also had clients come to me at the eleventh hour when the only solution was litigation.  Advance planning is the best solution.  I can help! I assist clients in setting up a system to maximize debt collection, I assist with demand letters, and I assist with litigation and dispute resolution in this area of the law.  Need help? Contact me. I can help.

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October 1, 2025:  Let’s go to Court! 

Not so quick… Sometimes it is important and necessary to go straight to Court to protect and promote a client’s case.  However, litigation is only one of the many ways in which a client’s matter can be resolved.  In fact, sometimes it is better not even going there.  There are other ways to resolve a dispute from negotiation, to mediation, to arbitration (collectively called ADR).  In the old days a lawyer might have been more inclined to simply recommend to the client that they start a claim go to Court; a claim might have gone from start to finish fairly quickly and most disputes might have involved a handful of documents.  The litigation landscape is much different now.  Litigation is inherently time consuming and expensive and as the saying goes: “the only certainty in litigation is uncertainty”.

There are many factors at play to create that uncertainty.  There are facts, law, evidence, the demeanour of a witness on a particular day, and many more variables.  There are many reasons why clients choose ADR.  ADR offers clients the possibility of resolving disputes faster and more cost-effectively.  Parties are often able to craft better and more creative solutions than what might be available in Court (which is generally win or lose). ADR can often be less stressful.

Most lawyers do negotiate – a process that can and should start early on and continue through the process.  Mediation is being used more and more.   For example, the Human Rights Tribunal for Ontario used to have voluntary mediation; since June 1, 2025, the process is now mandatory.   Actions commenced in the Superior Court of Justice in Windsor, Toronto, and Ottawa are also subject to mandatory mediation.

ADR and litigation are not the same thing.  They should not be approached in the same way.  Different tools for different jobs!  Need help with a civil or commercial dispute?  Contact me for a consultation.

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September 25, 2025 – Increase in Jurisdictional Limit to Small Claims Court (Ontario)

Summer is almost done; fall is almost here.  Seasons are not the only things that change.  The law changes! Sometimes at a snail’s pace and sometimes very quickly.  One such change is the jurisdictional limit to the Small Claims Court.  The Small Claims Court is a branch of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.  It hears civil claims dealing with actions for payment of money or recovery of possession of personal property where the amount claimed or value of the property does not exceed $35,000.00.  However, that limit will soon change to $50,000.00 effective October 1, 2025.

The Small Claims Court is something of a “People’s Court”; it is meant to provide a speedy and cost efficient way of resolving civil claims as opposed to the more expensive and time consuming litigation process in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.    The Government of Ontario has a very useful guide to procedures in the Small Claims Court (https://www.ontario.ca/document/guide-procedures-small-claims-court).  There are specific forms that you need to use, which you can find here – https://ontariocourtforms.on.ca/en/

There is no requirement that a person be represented by a lawyer or paralegal.  Can you do it yourself?  Sure!  Do I recommend it? Well, no.  The law can be technical and complex for the average litigant.  There are specific requirements for claims, let alone deadlines by which you should commence a claim.  Do you have questions?  Please contact me for a consultation!