Here’s Legal Form + Video Guide #16:

Plaintiff’s Claim – Unpaid Account Disputes (Ontario Small Claims Court)

This Court Form Package can be used by a party who wants to start a lawsuit in Ontario’s Small Claims Court concerning an Unpaid Account dispute.   This package comes with a FREE VIDEO GUIDE (watch a useful example of how this court form can be customized), a FREE DL GUIDE (read helpful information about this court form), and another FREE DL GUIDE that offers valuable insight into preparing for and attending Ontario’s Small Claims Court.  What are you waiting for?   Best of all, if you DO need a lawyer and need some legal advice, simply make a post and get FREE quotes from Ontario lawyers focusing on the area of law you require!

This information and this sample video guide is NOT legal advice and is provided for informational purposes only. If you need an Ontario lawyer, go to Dynamic Lawyers and make a post.

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Toronto law firms can help answer your legal questions, facilitate your transaction (e.g. business, real estate, wills and estates, family, etc.) or even represent you in court.  To find a Toronto lawyer or law firm, go to Dynamic Lawyers and make a post.  It’s free and anonymous and Toronto lawyers and law firms will respond to you with information and quotes for you to compare.

Here are some of the different types of law that Toronto law firms can assist you in:

• Accidents and Injuries: Involved in an accident where you suffered personal injury?
• Business: Need corporate or commercial agreements? Need to have a lawyer help you do a transaction?
• Charities and Not-For-Profit: Need to establish a Not-For-Profit corporation or obtain charity status?
• Civil Litigation – Higher Court: Have a serious legal claim that needs to be litigated in the Superior Court, Divisional Court, etc.?
• Civil Litigation – Small Claims Court: Have a legal claim (e.g. breach of contract, negligence, etc.) for less than $10,000?
• Constitutional / Human Rights and Freedoms: Challenging a law or government action / inaction?
  Criminal: Charged with a criminal offence? Appealing a conviction?
• Employment and Labour: Need an employment agreement? Unjustly terminated? Need to know your rights?
• Family: Going through a separation or divorce? Fighting to get custody or access? Dealing with spousal and child support?
• Government: Need to lobby the government? Need to resolve a dispute with a government agency?
• Highway Traffic Tickets: Charged with speeding or DUI? Need to fight traffic tickets?
• Immigration: Need to immigrate to Canada? Fighting against deportation?
• Insurance: Having difficulties with your Insurance company?.
• Intellectual Property: Need to register a copyright or trademark? Need help with a patent?
• Landlord and Tenant: Need a resolve a dispute? Need to know your rights?.
• Notary Public / Commissioner: Need to notarize or commission your documents?
• Real Estate: Need someone to facilitate your residential or commercial purchase, sale, or lease?
• Tax: Need help structuring your tax affairs? Need help resolving tax disputes with the Canada Revenue Agency?
• Wills, Estates and Trusts: Need a will? Need to update your will? Find out why having an up-to-date will is a must.

Try to consult with a couple of Toronto law firms and Toronto attorneys until you’re comfortable with whom you’re speaking with.  Toronto law firms differ in size, location, expertise, and reputation.  Go to Dynamic Lawyers and save time and money finding the right Toronto law firms and Toronto attorneys who specialize in the legal area you require!

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Toronto Attorneys and Toronto Lawyers: go to Dynamic Lawyers to make a post of your legal issue(s) and have Toronto Attorneys and Toronto Lawyers respond with information and quotes.

What’s the difference between “Attorney”  and “Lawyer”?  Well, in Ontario, people who have studied law in law school, passed the Bar Admissions test, and have been called to the Bar of Ontario are called different things to different people.  The Law Society of Upper Canada calls them licensees.  In court, judges call them counsel.  Their clients call them their lawyer or attorney.  And they call themselves barristers and solicitors.  So what do all of these things mean?  Basically, they all come to mean the same thing, with a few minor comments about the differences between a barrister and solicitor.

A lawyer is the normal thing we call persons learned in the law and licensed to practice law.  An attorney works too, but this is more Americanized for some reason (at least in my humble experience).  Counsel means the same thing as a lawyer or attorney, but is used less often – lest some people confuse the lawyer with some type of counselor or consultant (unless the term legal counsel is used).

The distinction between a barrister and a solicitor is interesting and worthy of a few words here.  Toronto attorneys are both capable of calling themselves barristers and solicitors.  In other jurisdictions, lawyers may be one or the other but not both.  The word barrister, in its deep-rooted English traditions, comes from those who are called to bar and who advocate for their clients before courts and tribunals.  This is to be distinguished from solicitors, who typically are engaged by clients to do contractual work and facilitate transactions (e.g. business, real estate, wills and estates, family, etc.).

For more information about the differences between barristers and solicitors, check out what Wikipedia has to say.

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Please note that the information provided herein is not legal advice and is provided for informational and educational purposes only.   If you need legal advice with respect to drafting from a Terms of Use Template, you should seek professional assistance (e.g. make a post on Dynamic Lawyers).  We have technology lawyers registered who can offer quotes of what they would charge to draft/review a Terms of Use Template / Agreement.

I’ve drafted and revised a few Terms of Use Templates / Agreements in my day and so I thought it would be useful to put some thoughts about what goes into these documents here in this blog.  Be careful, however, when relying solely on other website’s Terms of Use Templates as they may be tailored to the specific jurisdiction and business requirements of that specific website.

The bottom line is that the Terms of Use Agreement is a contract that your website users agree to by visiting and using your website.  In addition to a Terms of Use Agreement, a typical website should also have a Privacy Policy and a Disclaimer.  In this blog, I’ll be discussing some of the more obvious things that will be contained in a Terms of Use Template / Agreement.

Introduction
First, the Terms of Use Agreement should specify that the user’s use of the website is governed by the Terms of Use Agreement, Privacy Policy, Disclaimer, and any other relevant terms and conditions, policies, and notices which apply to the website or a specific section or module of the website.  You may also want to identify the website and the party which owns/operates the website.  Make these terms defined so that you can refer to them throughout the rest of your Terms of Use Agreement.

Accepting the Terms of Use
Second, the Terms of Use Agreement should specify that, by using the website, the user is agreeing to the Terms of Use (and if they don’t, they should not be using the website anymore).

Revisions
Third, there should be some acknowledgment that users agree to any and all modifications, alterations, and updates of the Terms of Use (which become effective upon being posted on the website).

Trademark/Copyright
Fourth, if there are logos/designs which have been trademarked, there should be a provision in the Terms of Use agreement which makes note of this and warns of unauthorized uses.  Same goes for copyright.

Website Use/Restrictions
Fifth, the user will acknowledge that they are responsible to protect their IDs and passwords (if applicable) and also that any compromises should be reported immediately.  With respect to restrictions, users are generally prohibited from doing things like: posting or transmitting harmful or illegal content, interfering with the website’s operation, trying to hack into pass-word protected areas, and taking actions that will create an unreasonably large load on the web site’s infrastructure.

General
Finally, comes the general terms that typically are part of most contracts.  These terms will include things like: (1) the governing law for the interpretation, application, and enforcement of the Terms of Use is the jurisdiction of XXX, (2) this is the entire agreement in respect of this subject matter, (3) if any provision is severed, the rest of the Terms of Use Agreement survives, and (4) the effective date.

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It’s probably safe to suggest that most ordinary Torontonians do not personally know or have immediate access to a lawyer to help resolve their legal issues.

Rather, they may depend on their friends, colleagues, or other professionals they do know (e.g. bankers, accountants, consultants, real estate agents, insurance agents, paralegals, other lawyers they know, etc.) to refer them to a good lawyer who specializes in the field they require.

They may turn to the Yellow Pages (either online or the big yellow book) and simply pick an advertisement and make a phone call.  I’ve been told that people tend to pick the biggest advertisement because they somehow believe that the bigger the ad, the more successful the lawyer or law firm.

They may even turn to the Law Society of Upper Canada’s Lawyer Referral Service, which charges users $6 for a 30-minute conversation with one lawyer.

Alternatively, they may try to resolve their own legal issues.

Torontonians generally only need a lawyer for a limited time and have a limited budget for such engagements. Yet it is hard for these people to distinguish lawyers and law firms from each other, especially given that many small and medium law firms have a general practice. It may also be intimidating for them to approach lawyers with their legal issues, given that doing so may cost money (e.g. $500 for the initial hour visit) and ultimately retaining a lawyer could be very expensive given the uncertainty of hourly billings.

These factors make ordinary Torontonians shy away from seeking or hiring lawyers. Those sophisticated Torontonians who surf the Web looking for a lawyer are hungry for more information than what is provided in the YellowPages or a newspaper advertisement. They are doing a Google or Yahoo search to seek out a particular type of attorney in a particular field in a particular area. They are also looking for testimonials and looking for the experience of a lawyer.

According to the Kelsey Group, provider of strategic research and analysis, data and competitive metrics on the Yellow Pages, and electronic directories, in a survey released in 2005, more adults are using the Internet to research shopping than they are the Yellow Pages.  According to the study, use of the Yellow Pages sharply declined in homes with Internet access, but alarmingly, remained flat in homes without Internet access. This suggests that the average consumer is loath to flip through hundreds of ads in a book, and more likely to tap‐tap‐ tap a few keys to find the information that they need (“Dramatic Shift in consumer practices forces legal industry to re‐ think advertising options”, Canada NewsWire (Ottawa: Mar 1, 2006), pg. 1.).

All in all, it makes perfect sense for users facing these challenges to turn to Dynamic Lawyers as a way of finding the right lawyer for the right price.  Making a post is free and anonymous, posts remain on the website for up to 45 days, and users have the opportunity to receive information and multiple quotes from local lawyers specializing in the area of law requested.  All in all, a very good deal…

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I am a sole practitioner with my own law practice here in Toronto (focusing on business law, lobbying, and litigation). I was surfing www.craigslist.org (a popular free classifieds website) earlier last year and noticed something peculiar: in the clutter of lawyer posts advertising their services on mass, a few individuals (i.e. non lawyers) had taken the initiative to actually post their legal problems online and seek legal advice. These individuals were onto something: they were leveraging technology to get quick and free answers from lawyers, including how much it would cost for a particular legal service. I responded to two of them and now they’re both my clients. This got me thinking: why not have a website dedicated to people posting their legal issues online and getting free information and quotes from local lawyers? So, with the help of two tech-savvy friends from business school, I set out to develop a website called Dynamic Lawyers that does exactly that. After months of hard work, the website officially launched in Toronto in November 2008.  Since launching, Dynamic Lawyers has been featured in the Toronto Star, Globe and Mail, CFRB1010 Radio, Toronto Sun, 24 Hours, Toronto Business Times, Law Times, and more are on their way…

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I am a sole practitioner here in Toronto. I established my practice straight after articling and getting called to the bar (June 2008). People like me often don’t know where their next client is going to come from (typically referrals). But I started getting a client here and there from craiglist.org (I would just respond to individuals who were posting their legal problems).

That gave me an idea: I wanted to come up with a website like www.craigslist.org but which focuses on legal services.

That’s why I created Dynamic Lawyers.

The idea is simple: allow ordinary people to freely and anonymously explain, through an online post (which can be public or private), why they need a lawyer and then receive quick and multiple e-mail responses and quotes from local lawyers. For their part, lawyers specializing in the legal areas sought after would be able to directly and effectively market their services to the public. I believe that this website will simultaneously satisfy two pressing needs by bringing prospective lawyers and clients together.

While the idea is not necessarily new (see www.craigslist.org, www.kijiji.ca, www.lawyerahead.ca, www.canlaw.com, etc.), the way we are going about it is different. We are focusing initially on Toronto. We are focusing on certain legal areas (i.e. high volume transactions with fixed costs). We are not going to litter the website with ads or peripheral services. We are focusing solely on “Need a Toronto Lawyer? Make a Post. Get FREE Quotes!. We are not trying to be everything to everyone. Nor is this service going to be expensive for lawyers who wish to register: we’ve been giving lawyers 2 months free to try it out and we only charge $30 per month after that. My motivation is simple: I don’t like being charged a lot (particularly since it cost me about $15,000-$20,000 to set up my practice with no advertising), so I don’t want to charge individuals in my position a lot either. Finally, the website is going to be very much like a cross between www.google.ca and www.craigslist.ca (clean, simple, and easy to navigate).

Lawyers who have an account also receive new posts in their e-mails and will be able to instantly respond.  The posts are e-mailed out to lawyers based on certain criteria – namely, their geographic area (e.g. Toronto), legal area (e.g. criminal law), and matter (e.g. theft under $5,000). I figure that lawyers like me don’t have all the time in the world to roam the net or the website for clients, so why not just get notifications in my inbox when a new post has been made?

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One of Ross Kodner’s 30+ law and technology predictions for 2009 includes lawyers becoming so desperate for business that they start auctioning their services on eBay.  Obviously, for lawyers to offer their services in this manner will reflect the increasing commoditization of their services.  It is perhaps those lawyers engaged in high volume transactional work who will be the first to experiment.  The real estate, wills and estate, simple incorporation, simple divorce, etc. lawyers will pitch their services to the highest bidder.

Yet resorting to eBay to sell one’s services raises two contentious issues.   First, doing so may draw the ire of the Law Society of Upper Canada: Rule 3.02(3) of the Rules of Civil Procedure (which lawyers must adhere to) provides that a lawyer may advertise their fee if it is reasonably precise as to the service offered for each fee quoted and states whether other amounts (e.g. disbursements and taxes) will be charged in addition to the fee.  Hence, advertising your fee with precision on eBay may be difficult as it is an auction-style of website service.

Second, eBay sellers receive feedback ratings and commentary from buyers.  Lawyers may feel uncomfortable putting their credibility ‘out there’ and allowing disgruntled clients or winning bidders with negative experiences to leave neutral or negative feedback.  At the end of the day, a lawyer’s credibility is all they have and anything that tarnishes that can effectively end their business.

All in all, I don’t see Ontario lawyers resorting to eBay in 2009 as a means of selling their services.

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