How do I get a copy of the small claims judgment?
Short answer
In Quebec, consulting a small claims judgment is free: you can do it at the small claims court office of a courthouse, or online in SOQUIJ’s decision search tool, using the file number or the names of the parties.
In detail
At the courthouse, you can ask for a copy of the judgment or photograph it on the spot. You cannot, however, leave the courthouse with a judgment that is in the file: the complete file has to stay there.
The file number takes the form XXX-XX-XXXXXX-XX. With that number or the names of the parties, the search is quick, online as well as at the counter.
Keeping a copy of the judgment is not an administrative detail: the judgment stays valid for 10 years, and it is what any later enforcement step is based on.
What to document
The file number, the date of the judgment, and a legible copy or photograph of the complete judgment. Keep it together with an up-to-date calculation of the unpaid balance: that is the file you will reopen if the debtor becomes solvent again.
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.