Rainbow Investigations

- Para-Legal Services - Civil Division Claims -

(403) 651-9049 / (403) 245-0533

Civil Litigation Claims Less Than $25,000

• Construction Litigation, Landlord-tenant, Debts, Promissory Notes, Partnership disputes, Revenue Property issues
• Evidence gathering / case preparation / locate other party / formal demand notes
• Preparation and Filing the Claim / Serving Other Party
• Acting as an agent through mediation, interlocutory applications, pre-trial conferences, default judgment hearings, and trial.
• Collection Services After Judgment

In October of 2002, Alberta Justice made a major change in how it handles civil law. Alberta Justice decided that the limit for civil claims within Provincial Court Civil Division (small claims) was now $25,000 – one of the highest totals for small claims in any jurisdiction in North America. This has meant many more actions now are going to Civil Division.

Still, a $25,000 civil procedure is small for a lawyer to be involved in, and sometimes it is not worth it economically for a client to use a lawyer for such a claim (as legal fees could be as high as $300 or more per hour).  Many of the smaller claims in this category do not even interest most lawyers.

The amount of actions going to Civil Division now has provided an opportunity for trained “Court Agents” or “Para-Legals” to provide the service of registering these lawsuits, and representing the client over the course of the lawsuit. Typically, using such agents cost the client less than half the cost of employing a law office to do similar work.

Rainbow Investigations is quickly becoming one of Calgary ’s most effective non-lawyer para-legal service in this area of civil litigation. We have the training and the experience in the entire process. We also have the respect of many lawyers who are familiar with our services.  In fact, many of our files here are direct referrals from law offices.

Rainbow Investigations wishes to make it clear that we do not compete with lawyers or law offices.  We provide a service that the layperson may not be able to get easily through the law office.  Obviously, there are some limits to what a non-lawyer can do.  For example, we suggest to parties that are going to have a contested trial over $15,000, or situations where there are clear and complex legal issues, it may be better to go with an experienced trial lawyer.  In these situations, we assist the client in finding a suitable lawyer for the trial.

We have also been successful in collecting judgments from other parties via garnishment, property liens, and other methods.  Please refer to our section on collecting judgments.

In conclusion, we cannot advise you whether suing is the best route, as that would be legal advice.  However, if you have decided to sue for an amount less than $25,000, Rainbow Investigations will undertake, file and complete the process in the most efficient manner currently available in Calgary.

Recent Files:

Damage To Vehicle During Detailing - we successfully sued an auto detailer for full damages + loss of self employment revenue + costs and collected the entire judgment for our client; all of this as a result of engine damage during auto detailing

Wedding Services – during a trial we managed to reduce our client’s bill for a wedding by $2500 due to poor service

Construction Litigation – a ton of them!

We have successfully obtained judgments for poor renovations in several matters; worked out settlements in other jobs that renovators did not complete; we currently have before the courts many other renovators - some outright fraudulent. In our most recent judgment, we were awarded $25,000 + costs for our client, and now have a forwarded our info for a criminal investigation

Lube Problem – we settled a matter involving a lube job where someone did not replace a cap resulting in damage to our client’s vehicle

Piano Dispute – we won in a trial against an experienced litigation lawyer a dispute of ownership of a piano

Fraudulent Mortgage Broker – we successfully assisted our client to sue a fraudulent mortgage broker in northern Alberta; the fraudulent broker has now been convicted on criminal charges, and awaits sentencing

Promissory Notes – we successfully collected promissory note debts through court ordered garnishment and collecting on binding mediation agreements

Rental Skips – we chased down, found, sued and collected from several parties who had left our client’s rental properties without notice. In one particular case, we located such a party in Saskatchewan, and are garnishing as we speak. In two other files, we have had tenancies terminated by court order, and are currently suing for damages upon vacating

Lawyer Referrals – we have had a few very complicated matters involving major legal issues; here we have referred the files to lawyers after doing the initial groundwork.  Many of these matters are currently scheduled for trial.

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