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Ontario|Small Claims CourtGeneral Information 539 Determining who to sue By correctly naming all the defendants you are suing, it will be easier to win the lawsuit and collect any money which the court may order the defendants to pay you. In a lawsuit, a defendant can either be the person or business responsible for your loss.
- Finding the defendant's proper name
Before you start a lawsuit you will need to find out the proper legal name of the defendant. Who you name as a defendant will depend on whether your situation involves a person or a business.
- Individual defendant
If you are going to sue a person, it is necessary to find out his or her legal name. A person's legal name might appear on a lease, cheque, or other official document. If a defendant is known by more than one name, you should list all of their names. For example, you may refer to someone as "Robert Smith also known as Bob Smith".
- Suing a business
If you are going to sue a business, the name you use for the defendant will depend on what type of business it is. There are three types of business entities: corporations, partnerships, and sole proprietorships.
- Corporate defendant
If the defendant is a corporation, you should use its full legal name, which will probably end with the word corporation, incorporated, limited or one of their abbreviations. The full business name usually appears on the business' letterhead, cheques, business cards, or contracts. If you are unsure about the full legal name of the business or whether it is a corporation, you can do a corporate search through the Ministry of Consumer and Commercial Relations. This office is listed on the Legal Line Guide and website, and in the Blue pages of your telephone book.
- Partnership defendant
If you want to sue a partnership or one of the partners in a partnership, you should list the partnership as the defendant, rather than the name of any individual partner. Even though you are not required to list individual partners as defendants, if you are suing a partnership but want to be able to collect money from one of the partners personally, you may want to name that partner as a defendant in the Statement of Claim and deliver a copy to that partner as well.
- Sole proprietorship defendant
If the business you are suing is not a corporation or a partnership, and it is operated by a single person, it is called a sole proprietorship.
For a sole proprietorship, you can check to see whether the business name is registered with the Ministry of Consumer and Commercial Relations. If the business name is registered, you can use the name of the business as the defendant in your lawsuit.
If the business name is not registered, you should use the name of the owner of the business as the defendant. You may wish to include both. For example, you may sue "John Smith, carrying on business as John's Cleaning Service".
To obtain more information about the correct name and address of a partnership or sole proprietorship, you can conduct a search at the Ministry of Consumer and Commercial Relations for a small fee. For more information about properly naming a defendant, you should consult a lawyer.
STARTING THE LAWSUIT
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