Justice
April 12, 2011

The following Statement was given today in the House of Assembly by the Honourable Felix Collins, Minister of Justice:

Small Claims Court Sees Successful Increase in E-filing

It gives me great pleasure to update this Honourable House on the small claims e-filing initiative. The ability to e-file small claims was introduced last June and since that time we have seen almost 25 per cent of all claims filed electronically with the Small Claims Court.

E-filing is easy and convenient and allows users to file claims at any time, day or night from anywhere in the province, as long as they have access to the Internet. There are only two jurisdictions in Canada which offer e-filing and I am proud to say that Newfoundland and Labrador is one of them.

Furthermore, e-filing coincided with legislative amendments that increased the amount of small claims from $5,000 to $25,000. This was an important move for all citizens of Newfoundland and Labrador as it provides greater access to the Small Claims Court. Prior to increasing the amount, if an individual had a claim which was over $5,000, the likely process to address this would have been through the Supreme Court. This process was costly and one of our main goals of increasing the monetary limit was to help individuals avoid that costly process.

For the fiscal year 2010-11, there were almost 1,500 claims filed with the Small Claims Court. This is in comparison to the previous fiscal year when just under 1,300 claims were filed.

While I am pleased with the numbers of the people who have opted to file their claims electronically, I would like to see more people use this option. I encourage Honourable Members to inform their constituents that e-filing is a convenient new option.

We believe that both the increase in monetary jurisdiction and e-filing are ways to provide greater service delivery. Members of the public can access the e-filing process at the Provincial Court website and as an individual goes through the process online, there are help functions including an e-mail address and a toll-free number should they have any questions.

The Department of Justice is certainly proud of this new application as it provides more expeditious access to justice for more people. It is our hope that we will see more people use the e-filing process for filing their small claims.

2011 04 12                                       1:55 p.m.