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If you are being sued in Small Claims Court, you can counterclaim against the person suing you if you think they owe you money. You can also make a third party claim if you think someone other than you is responsible for the damages.
If you believe that the person suing you owes you money, you can make a counterclaim against them. You can still dispute the claim made against you if you make a counterclaim.
If you want to make a counterclaim, you can go to the Small Claims Court that issued the summons and ask for the form. If you are making a counterclaim, it will be part of your reply and is served in the same way.
The judge will look at the counterclaim and the plaintiff's claim at the same time and decide who owes money. The amount of one claim is set off against the amount of the other claim. For example, you may be sued by someone for an unpaid repair bill for your car. You may want to defend the claim because the work was not satisfactory. If you paid someone else to fix the car properly, you could start a counterclaim for that cost.
You can counterclaim for more than the monetary limit, which is currently $50,000, but you cannot get a judgment for more than the limit. This could happen if, for example, the other party sues you for $50,000 and you claim they owe you $60,000. If the judge upholds both claims, you would get a judgment for $10,000. However, if the judge found that you did not owe the other party anything, you would only get a judgment of $50,000. If you get a judgment for the maximum amount in Small Claims Court, you cannot sue again for the rest. If you decide not to use Small Claims Court for your counterclaim, you can sue in the Court of King's Bench for the whole amount.
If someone is suing you, but you think another person is responsible for the loss, you can add them into the claim as a defendant.
If you want to add a third party as a defendant, you must apply to the court for a Notice of Third Party Claim. The clerk will assist you in preparing a concise written statement of the third party claim. A judge will then review the third party claim. If the judge is satisfied that there may be a valid third party claim, the judge will issue a Notice of Third Party Claim.
The third party claim must be served at least 30 days before the court date in the summons. It can be served by any of the methods that can be used to serve a reply.
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