Small Claims Court jurisdiction and how to size a claim

What this guide answers

Before a Plaintiff's Claim is issued, one question has to be settled: is this claim the right size for the Small Claims Court? Getting it wrong is expensive in both directions. A claim issued in the Small Claims Court for more than the court can award has to be reduced or moved. A claim quietly trimmed to fit can give away money that was recoverable. This guide sets out the limit, what is and is not measured against it, and the four choices open to a claim that does not fit.

The monetary limit

Section 23 of the Courts of Justice Act gives the Small Claims Court jurisdiction over money claims and claims for the recovery of personal property up to a prescribed amount. That amount is prescribed by O. Reg. 626/00 and is currently $50,000, exclusive of interest and costs. The increase to that figure was made by O. Reg. 42/25 and applies to proceedings commenced on or after 1 October 2025.

The effective date matters. A proceeding commenced before 1 October 2025 was governed by the prescribed amount in force at the time it was commenced, not by the current figure. If you are looking at an existing file rather than a claim you are about to issue, check the date of issuance before assuming the $50,000 figure applies to it.

The limit is a ceiling on what a Small Claims Court judge can award as principal. It is not a target, not a filing threshold, and not a statement about what your claim is worth.

What is measured against the limit, and what is not

The limit measures the amount claimed as debt or damages, exclusive of interest and costs. In practical terms:

• Counted: the principal debt or damages, and the value of personal property claimed.
• Not counted: prejudgment interest under section 128 of the Courts of Justice Act, postjudgment interest under section 129, court fees, and party-and-party costs.

So a judgment can lawfully total more than the limit once interest and costs are added. What cannot exceed the limit is the principal component. When you are testing a claim, add up only the principal heads and compare that subtotal with the cap. Adding interest into the comparison is the single most common sizing mistake, and it causes people to abandon money that they were entitled to claim.

Adding up the principal

Where a claim has several heads, each one goes into the principal subtotal: unpaid invoices, the cost to repair or replace, a returned deposit, liquidated damages provided for by contract, and any statutory amount claimed as a debt. What does not go in is anything you expect to receive because you sued - interest, the filing fee, and any costs award.

Keep a written note of how the subtotal was built. If the claim is defended, that same note becomes the backbone of the damages part of your evidence, and it makes it obvious whether any later amendment pushes the claim over the ceiling.

Splitting a claim is not permitted

A plaintiff cannot divide a single cause of action into two claims to stay under the limit, or issue part of it in one court and the rest in another. Two invoices under the same agreement, or one course of dealing producing several losses, are ordinarily one claim. If the total exceeds the limit, the plaintiff must either abandon the excess or issue in a higher court.

Genuinely separate causes of action against the same defendant - for example, two unrelated contracts entered into years apart - are a different matter, but whether two events are one cause of action or two is a legal question, not an arithmetic one. If there is any doubt, this is a point on which to get advice before issuing.

Abandoning the excess

A plaintiff who wants the speed and lower cost of the Small Claims Court but whose claim exceeds the limit may issue there and formally abandon the amount over the cap. Abandonment is permanent for that claim: the abandoned amount cannot be recovered later in another proceeding on the same facts.

Abandonment is often the right commercial answer for a modest overage against a defendant of uncertain means, because the saving in fees, delay and costs exposure can exceed the amount given up. It is rarely the right answer for a large overage against a solvent defendant. Work out the arithmetic before choosing: what is being given up, against what the higher court would cost to run.

Multiple defendants and multiple claims

How the limit applies where several defendants are named depends on the cause of action and how liability is pleaded, and it is not a matter of dividing the total by the number of defendants. Similarly, where one plaintiff has genuinely distinct claims, whether they can be issued separately turns on whether they are separate causes of action. Both questions are fact-specific and are worth putting to a lawyer or licensed paralegal before issuing.

When to consider the Superior Court instead

Consider the Superior Court of Justice where:

• the principal materially exceeds the Small Claims limit;
• non-monetary relief is required, such as specific performance, an injunction, or a declaration;
• the claim concerns an interest in land, which the Small Claims Court cannot determine;
• the evidence is complex enough that documentary discovery and examinations for discovery are worth their cost.

The trade-off is real in both directions: the Superior Court can award the full amount and broader relief, but filing fees are higher, the timetable is longer, and an unsuccessful party's costs exposure is far larger than the fifteen percent guide that applies in the Small Claims Court.

Common mistakes

• Adding interest to the principal before comparing against the limit.
• Assuming the fifteen percent costs guide or court fees consume part of the cap.
• Splitting one cause of action into two claims to fit, which is not permitted and can be struck.
• Abandoning the excess without working out what is being given up compared with the cost of the higher court.
• Applying today's $50,000 figure to a proceeding commenced before 1 October 2025.
• Amending upward mid-case without rechecking the ceiling, then discovering the claim no longer fits.

Sizing checklist

• List every principal head of claim and total them; exclude interest and costs.
• Confirm the date the proceeding was or will be commenced, and confirm which prescribed amount applies.
• Ask whether the heads arise from one cause of action; if so, they must be claimed together.
• If the subtotal exceeds the cap, price both routes - abandonment versus the Superior Court - before choosing.
• Check whether any relief you need is non-monetary; if so, the higher court is likely.
• Record how the subtotal was built, and revisit it before any amendment.

Next steps

Use the Claim Value Estimator to test a principal subtotal against the current limit and see the abandonment arithmetic on an overage. Use the Court Fee Calculator to price the filing steps once the forum is settled, and the Judgment Interest Calculator to work out the interest that sits outside the cap.