Small Claims Court, Simplified Procedure, or Superior Court: choosing the right forum for your Ontario commercial claim

Before drafting a statement of claim in an Ontario commercial recovery file, we do a forum-selection exercise. The three main options — Small Claims Court, the Simplified Procedure under Rule 76, and the ordinary track of the Superior Court of Justice — are set up for very different kinds of files, and picking the wrong one costs money and time.

Small Claims Court — up to $35,000

The monetary limit for Small Claims Court is $35,000, exclusive of interest and costs. It is a division of the Superior Court, with its own simplified rules, plain-language forms, and settlement-conference-first procedure.

Small Claims Court is usually the right forum when:

• The debt is under $35,000 and the debtor has assets or ongoing operations.
• The evidence is documentary and does not require significant expert opinion.
• The commercial relationship is not going to survive litigation anyway.

Costs awards are capped in Small Claims Court, which makes it a proportionate forum for smaller debts but a poor lever against a well-resourced adversary who wants to make the process painful.

Simplified Procedure (Rule 76) — $35,000 to $200,000

Under Rule 76 of the Rules of Civil Procedure, any claim above $35,000 and up to $200,000 (exclusive of interest and costs) proceeds by Simplified Procedure by default. It runs in the Superior Court but with important process constraints:

• No cross-examinations on affidavits and no examinations for discovery beyond a three-hour cap per side.
• Trials are capped at five days and use affidavit evidence in-chief with limited oral testimony.
• Jury trials are unavailable.

For most straightforward commercial-collection files in the mid-six-figure range, Simplified Procedure is the sweet spot: full Superior Court authority, real costs consequences, but a compressed and more predictable schedule.

Superior Court, ordinary track — above $200,000

For claims above $200,000, or complex claims within the Rule 76 monetary range that plaintiffs elect to bring under the ordinary rules (Rule 76.02 opt-in / opt-out considerations), the full Rules of Civil Procedure apply — full pleadings, full oral discovery, motions practice, and typically longer to trial.

This is the right forum for high-value files, claims with significant credibility issues that need real discovery, and cases where injunctive or other equitable relief is central.

Practical selection factors we look at

• Amount at stake (net of interest and costs, not including them).
• Complexity of proof — how much oral evidence, expert opinion, or discovery will the case really need?
• Cost recovery — larger cost awards in Superior Court can materially change the economics against a losing defendant.
• Speed to enforcement — Small Claims judgments are enforceable exactly like Superior Court judgments; forum does not affect what happens after judgment.
• The debtor's likely strategy — a Small Claims setting neutralizes some of the tools a well-financed defendant uses to bleed a plaintiff.

Enforcement is the same either way

One point worth emphasizing: once you have a judgment, enforcement — writs of seizure and sale, garnishment, examinations in aid of execution — runs under the same enforcement rules regardless of which forum issued the judgment. Forum choice affects how you get to judgment, not what a judgment lets you do.

When we open a file, forum selection is baked into the first strategy note we send you, alongside a cost/benefit analysis and a decision point. If you want to walk through the choice for a specific file, book a 30-minute consultation.