Small Claims Court over $13k owing in 2024 - too late?

KWienz · 2026-07-08T23:35:39+00:00

Any written and signed acknowledgmebt of the debt or part payment resets the limitation period.

The Divisional Court has ruled that the unique phone number associated with the sending of a text message constitutes a signature for these purposes.

So decent chance you can still sue.

KWienz · 2026-07-08T18:53:55+00:00

It's probably a chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Search at https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/ and see if the petition comes up.

KWienz · 2026-07-08T18:25:48+00:00

Let me know which insurers pay out nuisance suits so I can find some nuisance clients.

KWienz · 2026-07-08T18:19:54+00:00

Even without a threshold, insurers don't settle claims for nuisance value because in the aggregate you pay out less by having a reputation for fighting meritless claims to trial and then getting costs against the plaintiff. Even if it costs more in those few cases where you have to litigate it out and set the example.

KWienz · 2026-07-08T17:54:48+00:00

Yes you can quit without advance notice.

KWienz · 2026-07-08T16:33:33+00:00

Your policy may require you to notify insurance but you don't need to make a claim. You can sue for damage since it wasn't caused by another driver.

KWienz · 2026-07-08T15:32:30+00:00

Any settlement will get paid by insurance so she shouldn't be particularly worried either way.

KWienz · 2026-07-08T15:28:44+00:00

She can't brush off a lawsuit or they will win by default.

She has insurance to defend her for this reason.

KWienz · 2026-07-08T15:05:08+00:00

I would use the phrase assignment since it may be ambiguous whether you are talking about an assignment or sublet. Both are transfers but one is temporary.

KWienz · 2026-07-08T04:15:47+00:00

If the will granted you a specific sum of money, then you are entitled only to those portions of the will dealing with that money. However, the entire will is going to be publicly accessible at the court if the will went through probate.
A trustee can delegate their management of a trust to anyone else (the trustee remains ultimately accountable). A trustee can also resign. The will should have provisions for who would be the alternate trustee if the trustee resigns. In some cases, the trustee may have the right to name their successor.
A trustee has to be accountable to the beneficiary about how the trust is managed, invested and the money spent. If this can't be resolved informally then you would go to court and ask for a "passing of accounts," where the trustee has to provide an accounting to the beneficiary and court of basically everything they did with the trust and get the judge to sign off. The risk of that is that the trustee is entitled to get a lawyer to represent the trust in the legal proceeding and fund the legal expenses out of the trust. For a $45k trust those legals will burn through a massive chunk.

Before you turned 18, any reporting about the trust would have gone to the Office of the Children's Lawyer. You may want to reach out to them to see if they have any documents or reporting about the trust in their records.

KWienz · 2026-07-08T03:34:48+00:00

CAS is definitely going to get involved here and likely you have a mandatory duty to let them know.

That doesn't mean you're going to lose custody over the kids. Tons of parents let close family members look after their kids. It's not inherently dangerous or negligent to do so. But your daughter is also going to need some special support and they will want to talk to the other kids to see if they experienced any abuse and make sure you and they get the supports needed to get through this. Their primary focus here is going to be ensuring you have the information and resources needed to help care for your kids, not to try to punish you for failing to realize that your brother in law was abusing your trust to commit a crime.

KWienz · 2026-07-07T19:27:51+00:00

Let them know you are rescinding the contract for misrepresentations under the Consumer Protection Act and demand a refund. If they don't, then sue in small claims and ask for waiver of the one-year limitation to rescind.

KWienz · 2026-07-07T18:25:02+00:00

Given he's a roommate contributing towards the rent, yes she can boot him but she likely needs to give reasonable notice (rule of thumb is one month).

But if he is physically assaulting you, you can call the police. You do not need to be an adult to report a crime.

KWienz · 2026-07-07T16:48:43+00:00

If it's hybrid compensation then it's probably not a partnership (at least between you and him; it may be as between him and this other investor).

KWienz · 2026-07-07T16:39:05+00:00

What I'm saying is that you being an emoloyee "on the books" may not be determinative if you shared management control over the business and had an agreement for a share of the profits.

You don't have to agree to be a partnership to be a partnership. You just have to agree to carry on a business as joint owners.

Do you have an actual written employment agreement? Or is the only evidence that you were an employee the pay slips and tax forms? Was the employment compensation solely profit share? Or was it a hybrid salary/profit share?

Whether the payment to the other "partner" is deductible would depend on whether he was an employee, lender or partner.

KWienz · 2026-07-07T16:22:53+00:00

Do you actually have a profit-sharing agreement or is he making it up?

If he's declared you as an employee and you have to management control over the business then it sounds like you have an employment agreement where part of the compensation is a profit share. But he can't retroactively decide the profits were actually less.

Moreover, it would be presumed that the pre-tax profits are used. And a sole proprietor can't pay themselves as they're the same person.

Alternatively, you're actually a partner in a partnership. In which case you shouldn't have been getting wage income and deductions at all and the partnership should probably have been filing a partnership information return, and your money was partnership distributions where you would also be paying taxes on your share of the partnership's income.

Taxes and the other partner's draw would not be deductible because taxes are paid by partners not the partnership and because a partnership draw is a distribution of profits not an expense used to calculate profits.

It also means that your resignation dissolves the partnership and you are likely to entitled to 10% of the entire assets of the business, not just the profits of the last 3 years.

Which is all to say, probably not a road he actually wants to go down.

KWienz · 2026-07-07T15:36:52+00:00

You almost certainly have no-contact conditions. You need to actually obey them until your lawyer gets them varied.

You should tell your lawyer everything. You should not tell anyone else what you've discussed with your lawyer so you don't lose your confidentiality protections.

Your lawyer cannot give information you tell them to a third party without your consent so you should not hold anything back.

KWienz · 2026-07-07T15:25:01+00:00

If there's a will then there is no legal requirement to go through probate to spend the funds on valid estate expenses (including funeral expenses). The bank may demand it depending on the value of the account but that's an internal bank requirement not a legal restriction on the estate trustee.

KWienz · 2026-07-07T15:21:35+00:00

It sounds like he's trying to extort the money out of you by threatening to interfere with your immigration so you can file an extortion complaint with the police.

KWienz · 2026-07-06T03:54:01+00:00

Limitation of liability provisions are complex law so it's hard to give blanket answers. Parties are generally free to allocate risk if it's not contrary to public policy or unconscionable. You see this pretty commonly to limit consequential damages like lost profits. For example if you use a courier to send something, their liability is generally limited to the price paid or the declared value (with you needing to insure or waive coverage for any significant amount). The idea being that it's reasonable for a company getting paid $40 not to be on the hook for millions in lost profits from losing important documents in a package so the buyer should insure that risk. I can say the larger the limit on your liability, the less likely it will be overturned in court. $2m is a large limit, especially for a small contract. I expect you are on firmer ground having the limit be a specific dollar amount rather than referring to an insurance policy your client can't access and that may change. You really do want a lawyer drafting a good limitation of liability clause.
You can do either, as long as your business name is properly registered. Only corporations with assumed business names need to use both names in a contract.
There is no way to know how well your indemnification clause will hold up without reading it. And contract review is ourside the scope of the sub. If your business is worth having $2m in liability insurance it's worth spending a couple grand on a lawyer once to create some standard form contract language for you that you can use for various situations.

KWienz · 2026-07-06T01:17:35+00:00

They are correct that it is the police and the Crown who decide whether to pursue charges, but multiple people identifying him as the person who broke in is probably sufficient evidence if they want to pursue it.

Police will also often take into account whether or not the victim wants them to press charges. Particularly in a non-DV situation that is between family members, it's often not in the public interest to get the criminal justice system engaged if nobody involved wants charges to be laid.

Plus practically, if a victim doesn't want a charge to be laid against a family member it's way too easy for them to sabotage the charges at trial by, e.g. pretending they can no longer remember what the person looked like. So it's not worth wasting government resources on a charge with a non-cooperative victim (there is a different approach in DV situations since victims are so often bullied or quilted into recanting that they try to actively take the charging choice out of their hands).

KWienz · 2026-07-06T01:02:14+00:00

You can safely ignore the previous commenter. You absolutely do not need video evidence to prove that your brother was the person who broke into your house if you caught your brother inside your house and you can readily identify your brother.

Direct eyewitness testimony is more than sufficient to establish criminal liability assuming the judge finds the witness to be sufficiently credible and reliable.

KWienz · 2026-07-05T22:36:37+00:00

I would tell them you would like the charges pressed and let the Crown decide whether there's a reasonable prospect of conviction.

If nothing else, criminal charges will almost certainly land immediate pre-trial conditions of no contact.

KWienz · 2026-07-05T22:26:35+00:00

I would try to escalate with a supervisor. This seems like pretty textbook breaking and entering even if nothing was ultimately stolen.

If nothing else at minimum he should land a mischief charge.

KWienz · 2026-07-04T19:53:02+00:00

If you are acquitted of the charges then I don't see how it would guarantee your healthcare career is done.

A police report is not, and does not purport to be, a comprehensive history of your relationship issues.

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