Are there free training sessions to prepare for small claims?
Short answer
Yes. In Quebec, the Centres Info Justice offer free information sessions on small claims, in person at certain courthouses and in a virtual format on the third Tuesday of every month.
In detail
The content covers the whole process: preparing your file, mediation, the formal notice, the claim, how things unfold before the court, evidence, preparing for the hearing and the judgment.
These sessions come in addition to the clerk’s free assistance service, which checks your application form and answers your questions during a telephone interview of about 20 to 25 minutes, by appointment (1-866-536-5140).
None of these services replaces legal advice: they explain the procedure and check the form. For a question of law specific to your situation, you can consult a lawyer, even though that lawyer will not be able to represent you at the hearing.
What to document
Before the session, a list of your questions and where your file stands. Afterwards, the points that were explained to you and the time limits that apply to your case, with the dates calculated from your own events.
Put your facts in writing, free. Writing your version down early, keeping your documents dated and preparing your questions for a lawyer: the tool is there to document, never to advise.
Open the application Up to 3 files, no card · see the plans
Official sources
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What this page is not
This is general legal information about the law of Quebec and Canada, dated and sourced. It is not legal advice, not a strategy, and not a prediction about the outcome of a case. In Quebec, only lawyers and notaries may give legal advice (Act respecting the Barreau du Québec, ss. 128 and 133). Laws and amounts change: the official source always prevails over us.