Form 1A Additional Parties in Ontario Small Claims Court

When You Need Form 1A

Form 7A (Plaintiff's Claim) has space for one plaintiff and one defendant. If your proceeding involves more than one party on either side — two co-plaintiffs suing together, or one plaintiff suing three defendants — you need to attach the Additional Parties Schedule (Form 1A) to your claim.

Common situations that require Form 1A include suing both a numbered corporation and its sole director personally, naming a partnership alongside individual partners (with Form 5A for partner notice), filing jointly with a co-plaintiff (such as business partners suing a client together), and suing multiple defendants involved in the same transaction.

How to Complete Form 1A

Form 1A is available on the Ontario Court Forms website. It follows the same format as the party sections in Form 7A.

For each additional party, fill in:

• Full legal name. Use the exact legal name — corporate names from the Ontario Business Registry, individuals by their full first and last name. For sole proprietors, use the format "Jane Doe carrying on business as [trade name]."
• Address for service. The address where court documents can be sent to this party. For defendants, this is where you will serve the claim. For additional plaintiffs, this is their contact address for the court file.
• Phone and fax/email. Include all available contact information.
• Party role. Mark whether each additional person is a plaintiff or defendant.

Attach Form 1A to every copy of Form 7A — the original for the court, plus one copy for each defendant you are serving.

Filing and Service With Multiple Defendants

When you file Form 7A with Form 1A at the courthouse, you pay one filing fee ($108 for infrequent claimants) regardless of how many defendants are named. The filing fee is per claim, not per party.

However, you must serve every defendant individually. Each defendant gets their own copy of the issued claim (Form 7A + Form 1A + all attachments), and you file a separate Affidavit of Service (Form 8A) for each one. Each defendant has 20 days from the date they were served to file a defence — their individual clocks run independently.

If one defendant files a defence and another does not, use the non-responding defendant's Affidavit of Service (Form 8A) to ask the clerk to note that defendant in default using Form 9B. You can then pursue default judgment against that defendant while the defended claim proceeds separately. The default and defended tracks run in parallel.

Common Mistakes With Multiple Parties

Omitting Form 1A entirely. The Ontario Courts Public Portal in Toronto, Small Claims Court Submissions Online outside Toronto, and courthouse clerks can reject a filing that names additional parties in the body of Form 7A without attaching Form 1A. This is one of the more common reasons for rejected online submissions.

Naming the wrong entity. When suing a business and its owner, make sure you have the correct corporate name and the correct individual name. The corporation and the person are separate legal entities — a judgment against one does not automatically bind the other unless both are named and served.

Inconsistent names across forms. The names on Form 1A must match exactly how you refer to parties in the body of your claim. Any discrepancy can cause confusion at the settlement conference or trial.

For worked examples of completing Form 7A with Form 1A for multi-defendant claims, see our Ontario Small Claims Court filing guide.

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