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Ontario|Small Claims CourtThe Trial 558 Costs Costs are the expenses of bringing a lawsuit to court. Usually, the winning side in a court case has their costs added to the amount of their judgment. This may not cover all the expenses, but can cover many of them.
Costs may include some or all of the following:
- fees paid to the court to file a Statement of Claim, a
Statement of Defence, or a Defendant's Claim;
- fees paid to the court to file a motion;
- witness attendance fees;
- transportation costs to attend court;
- costs of photocopying papers, or having photographs developed;
- postage for serving documents;
- compensation for having to attend court when the other
party didn't show up; and the
- cost of hiring a necessary interpreter.
If the winning party was represented in court by a lawyer or a para-legal agent, they may be awarded legal costs for their attendance. This usually does not cover the entire legal bill, only the representative's court time. However, in exceptional circumstances a judge may order that the winning party's entire legal bill be paid by the losing party.
An award of costs by a judge can be affected by whether an Offer to Settle was made. If the judge feels that the winning party should have accepted an Offer to Settle that was made by the other side, the judge may decide not to award the winning party their costs. If the judge feels that the losing party should have settled the case, the winning party can be awarded double the amount of their costs. These decisions are made when the judge feels that one of the parties has wasted the court's time and inconvenienced the other side.
Sometimes, after a motion or a pre-trial conference, a judge will order a party to pay certain costs to the other side "forthwith". This means that the party who has been ordered to pay costs must pay the amount ordered to the other side right away. If they do not pay, they may not be allowed to go ahead in the lawsuit, and judgment may even be ordered against them.
If you want to check whether an order of costs has been made against you, contact the staff at the court. Be sure to know the claim number of the case.
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