How to Sue the Police - Access Justice

how to

Sue the Police

and private security in

Small Claims Court

David Eby & Emily Rix

Pivot Legal Society

how to

Sue the Police

and private security in

Small Claims Court

David Eby & Emily Rix

Pivot Legal Society

IMPORTANT WARNING

This book is not legal advice and does not replace legal advice from a qualified lawyer. The law is complicated, and only a lawyer can provide you with advice that is entirely accurate for your situation. This book is a general guide to make you familiar with how the Small Claims Court system works in B.C. for claims against the police. You can get in touch with a lawyer to discuss your situation by calling one of the phone numbers at the end of this book.

Copyright ? 2007 by Pivot Legal Society First printing 2007

Published by Pivot Legal Society ? 678 East Hastings Street ? Vancouver, B.C. ? v6A 1R1 Tel: 604 255 9700 ? Fax: 604 255 1552 ?

Contents may not be reproduced for public or private sale, donation, or exchange for any other good and valuable consideration without written permission from Pivot Legal Society. Any reproduction of this book or any part of this book for distribution to the general public without charge is encouraged. Where these materials are reproduced and/or distributed, credit must be given to Pivot Legal Society.

Printed and bound in Canada on acid-free paper Design and layout by Iva Cheung

Thanks to ubc Law's Social Justice Action Network, Cristen Gleeson, Farnaz Imani, Tina Nguyen, Francois Paradis, Christine Oberkircher, Una Radoja, John Richardson and Pip Stanaway for research, proofreading and advice.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Eby, David R., 1976?

How to sue the police and private security in small claims court / David

Eby & Emily Rix.

isbn 978-0-9736445-1-7

1. Small claims courts--British Columbia--Popular works. 2. Actions and

defenses--British Columbia--Popular works. 3. Tort liability of police--British

Columbia--Popular works. 4. Tort liability of private police--British Columbia--

Popular works. I. Rix, Emily II. Pivot Legal Society III. Title.

KEB486.Z82E29 2007

347.711?04

C2007-900494-6

Electronic copies of this book are available for free on the web at . To order a hard copy of this book, see page 100.

Contents

1 Introduction to Pivot Legal Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

2 The Basics of Suing the Police . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Suing a security guard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Suing the rcmp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 If you are younger than 19 years old . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

3 Suing the Police: Step by Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Step one: Preserve the evidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Step two: Give City Hall proper notice . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Step three: Get the "Notice of Claim," "Certificate of Readiness"

and "Statement of Finances" forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Step four: Fill in the forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

"Notice of Claim" form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 "Application to the Registrar" form . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 "Statement of Finances" form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 "Certificate of Readiness" form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Filing your forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Step five: Let the Defendant know about your claim . . . . . 40 Step six: Wait for the Reply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 "Technical" arguments by the Defendants:

Discloses no cause of action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 "Technical" arguments by the Defendants:

Section 21 of the Police Act ? Police Immunity . . . . . . 48 Step seven: The settlement conference . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Step eight: Offers to settle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Step nine: The trial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Special rules about how to behave in court . . . . . . . . . . 58 Evidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Witnesses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Expert witnesses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Changing your trial date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Argument . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Step ten: The judgment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

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