A plaintiff’s claim (Form 7A) must be served either by personal service or by an alternative to personal service under Rule 8.01(1) of the Rules of the Small Claims Court. You cannot serve a claim by ordinary mail or by email. Personal service on an individual means handing them a copy. The alternatives include sending the claim by registered mail or courier and obtaining a signature confirming receipt, or, if personal service cannot be made at the person’s home, leaving a copy with an adult member of the household and mailing or couriering another copy. A claim must be served within six months of the date it was issued.

Personal service under Rule 8.02 means physically delivering a copy of the document to the correct person. For an individual, you simply leave a copy with that individual. For a corporation, you leave a copy with an officer, a director, or another person authorized to act for the corporation, or with a person at any place of business who appears to be in control or management of that location. Other recipients, such as municipalities, partnerships, minors, and the Crown, each have their own personal-service rule under Rule 8.02.

It depends on the document. Under Rule 8.08, a defence and most other documents may be served by email. A plaintiff’s claim or defendant’s claim cannot be served by email, apart from narrow exceptions for certain government offices, such as the Crown or the Public Guardian and Trustee. When email service is allowed, the message must include the sender’s contact information, the name of the person being served, the date and time, and a contact in case of transmission problems. Email service takes effect on the day it is sent, or the next day if it is sent between 4 p.m. and midnight.

Where the rules allow mail or courier service, such as for a defence or most documents other than a claim, service by mail is effective on the fifth day after mailing, and service by courier is effective on the fifth day after the courier confirms delivery. A claim cannot be served by ordinary mail, but it can be sent by registered mail or courier as an alternative to personal service if you obtain a signature confirming receipt, and in that case service takes effect on the date receipt is verified.

Under Rule 8.01(2), a claim must be served within six months after the date it is issued. If you need more time, the court may extend that deadline, and it can do so either before or after the six months has elapsed. It is still safest to serve as early as you can, because a claim that is left unserved can delay your case and may be dismissed for delay.

For most documents, the Rules do not require a professional process server. The person who serves the document can be you, your representative, or anyone else, and that person then completes an Affidavit of Service (Form 8A) setting out how and when service was made. There are exceptions: a summons to witness must be served by the party who needs the witness or that party’s representative, and the court clerk serves certain documents, such as default judgments and orders made at a settlement conference.

Yes. Under Rule 8.09.1, service is proved by an Affidavit of Service (Form 8A) sworn by the person who served the document; a lawyer or paralegal may instead use a Certificate of Service (Form 8B). The affidavit sets out who was served, along with the date, method, and place of service. You will usually need to file this proof with the court, for example before you can ask for a default judgment when the defendant does not respond.

Improper service can mean the document was never validly served, which can delay your case or let the other party set aside a default judgment by showing the document never came to their attention (Rule 8.10). If you genuinely cannot serve a claim by personal or alternative service, you can ask the court to allow substituted service under Rule 8.04, or to extend the time for service. When in doubt, it is better to fix service properly than to risk having a result overturned later.