Appeals

I represented a friend in Small Claims court. He had a contractor put in a steel roof and complete a few other jobs within the same home. To make a long story short we sued for the full amount of $25,000 allowed by the Small Claims Court. We won and obtained judgement.

After sending a letter to the defendant looking for payment we received paperwork from the Defendant advising that he had retained a lawyer now and that the judgment was being appealed. So the Defendant had 30 days from the time of judgment to file his notice of appeal. After that, his counsel has to order the transcript so as to 'perfect' the appeal. The rules say that the defendant has 60 days to perfect the appeal from the time the defendant receives the transcript.

Well we waited to give them ample time to perfect the appeal and eventually followed up with the defendants lawyer about the appeal. We were advised that he had yet to receive the transcript as it was still being approved by the Deputy Judge.

The key word here is 'received'. It is going on 6 months now and not only has the appeal not been perfected, but the defendants lawyer has yet to receive the transcript. So I must ask the questions.......my friend would be the first to admit he doesn't have money to replace the roof and was hoping the judgment he won would go towards the replacing of the roof. Well not only did this whole court process take almost two years, but even after obtaining judgment, we cannot even enforce it. So my friend must continue to be patient and allow the court process to continue. Meanwhile, his roof is garbage and is causing extensive damage inside. One might say well you will get interest no? Yes of course, but the interest as per the Courts of Justice Act is negligible.

A very difficult situation to say the least. It will be even more frustrating and time consuming if the appeal is granted and a we have to go through another trial.

To be continued.