Can't afford the
court fees?

By Jonathan Kleiman, Barrister & Solicitor · Published June 2026

Every so often someone tells me they have a solid case — an unpaid wage, a returned deposit that was never refunded, a small contractor who took the money and disappeared — but they have decided not to do anything about it because they cannot scrape together the court fees. That conversation always frustrates me, because in many of those cases the person never had to pay a cent in fees in the first place. Ontario has a court fee waiver, and it exists for exactly this situation.

The waiver is made under O. Reg. 2/05 of the Administration of Justice Act, and the principle behind it is simple: your ability to access the court should not depend on whether you can afford the counter fees. It applies in Small Claims Court, in civil court, and in family court. If you qualify, the fees the court would otherwise charge you to file a claim, file a defence, set a matter down for trial, bring a motion, and enforce a judgment can simply be waived.

This article is the companion to my guide on Small Claims Court fees and costs, which lists what the various fees actually are. This one is about something different — getting those fees waived when you cannot afford to pay them. I will walk through who qualifies, the income test, what you need to provide, how to apply, and the one timing mistake that quietly costs people the benefit entirely.

Understanding the fee waiver

Start with the core idea, because it changes how you approach the whole thing: in Ontario, money is not supposed to be the reason you cannot access the court. Filing fees, trial fees, motion fees, enforcement fees — these can add up, and for someone living on a fixed income or between jobs, even a few hundred dollars at the wrong moment is a wall. The fee waiver is the door in that wall.

A fee waiver is not a loan, not a discount, and not something you pay back. If you qualify, the court simply does not charge you the fees that the waiver covers. You complete a short form, show proof of your financial situation, and — assuming you fit the criteria — you proceed with your case without paying those fees. It is always free to ask for one.

It is also worth being clear about what the waiver is not. It is not legal aid, it does not pay for a lawyer or paralegal, and it does not cover the cost of a process server or a bailiff. It removes the fees the court itself charges. For a lot of people, though, those court-counter fees are precisely the barrier — and removing them is enough to let a legitimate case move forward.

Is the fee waiver the same as legal aid?

No, and people mix these up constantly. Legal aid is about getting help with the cost of legal representation. The fee waiver is narrower and more specific: it only deals with the fees the court charges to process your case. You can qualify for a fee waiver and still represent yourself, which many people do — I cover that path in my guide on the steps to represent yourself in Small Claims Court. The two programs can coexist, but they solve different problems.

From my experience

From my experience, the single biggest problem with the fee waiver is not that people apply and get refused — it is that they never apply at all, because they do not know it exists. I have had people tell me, almost apologetically, that they could not afford to sue, as though that settled it. When I explain the waiver, you can see the relief land. The barrier they thought was permanent turns out to be one form.

The second problem I see is timing, and it is heartbreaking when it happens. Someone scrapes together the filing fee, pays it at the counter, gets their case going, and only later learns that they qualified for a waiver the whole time. By then it is usually too late — the waiver works going forward, not backward, so the fee they paid is generally gone. I will come back to this, but if you take one thing from this article, let it be this: ask about the waiver before you pay.

The third thing I notice is hesitation from people in the middle — not on benefits, but genuinely stretched. They assume the waiver is only for someone with nothing at all, so they do not bother asking. In reality there is an income test designed precisely for people who are working but cannot reasonably spare the fees. If that is you, do not talk yourself out of it before you have looked at the actual numbers.

There is one more thing I say out loud, because it removes a kind of shame people carry into the courthouse. Asking for a fee waiver is not asking for a favour, and it is not a mark against you or your case. The Ontario system deliberately built this in. A deputy judge is not going to think less of your claim because the fees were waived — the merits stand entirely on their own. I have watched people hesitate at the counter because they felt embarrassed to ask, and that hesitation is the only thing that ever actually costs them.

What the law generally says

The fee waiver is set out in O. Reg. 2/05 under the Administration of Justice Act. The regulation can be updated, and the dollar figures in particular do change, so treat the specific numbers below as approximate and confirm the current ones before you rely on them. The framework, though, is stable, and it is worth understanding in four parts: who can apply, automatic eligibility, the income test, and what it covers.

Who can apply

The waiver is for individuals who cannot afford court fees. It is not for a business, a corporation, or an organization — those pay the normal fees no matter how tight money is. It is also not available where a lawyer is paying your fees for you under a contingency-fee arrangement, because in that situation the fees are already being covered and the access-to-justice problem the waiver exists to fix is not present.

Automatic eligibility

You generally qualify automatically — no income test required — if your main source of household income is one of a list of government benefits. That list includes:

• Ontario Works (OW)
• The Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP)
• A Family Benefits allowance
• Old Age Security with the Guaranteed Income Supplement (OAS + GIS)
• War Veterans Allowance
• Canada Pension Plan (CPP) benefits

If your household primarily lives on one of these, you do not have to work through the asset and net-worth math at all. You still fill out the request and show proof — typically your benefit statement — but you are in the automatic group.

The income test

If you do not qualify automatically, there is an income test, and it looks at three things together. In broad terms, you may qualify if:

• Your total gross annual household income is below a set threshold — and that threshold varies by household size, so a larger household has a higher cut-off;
• Your household liquid assets are under around $2,800; and
• Your household net worth is under around $11,100.

Again, those last two figures are approximate and can be updated, so check the current numbers rather than treating mine as gospel. The point of the test is to capture people who are not on benefits but still cannot reasonably afford the fees out of money they actually have available.

What it covers

The waiver covers the fees the court itself charges to move your case forward — the claim filing fee, the defence fee, the fee to set a matter down or for trial, motion fees, and many enforcement fees. I will break down the coverage in more detail below, but the short version is: the court-counter fees, not the outside costs.

Common situations I see

The criteria are easier to understand through the people who actually come through them. Three patterns come up again and again.

The person on ODSP or Ontario Works. This is the cleanest case. If your household mainly lives on ODSP or OW, you are in the automatic-eligibility group. You do not have to prove you are under some asset limit or do the net-worth calculation. You complete the request, attach your benefit statement, and the fees are waived. I have seen people brace for an ordeal here and be surprised at how straightforward it is.

The low-income worker. This is the person who is employed but not earning much — part-time hours, a low wage, maybe supporting a couple of kids. They are not on benefits, so the automatic path does not apply, but they often fit comfortably within the income test. Their gross household income is under the threshold for their household size, they have very little in liquid savings, and their net worth is modest. This is exactly who the income test is built for, and many of them assume — wrongly — that working at all disqualifies them.

The unsure middle. This is the person who cannot tell which side of the line they fall on. Maybe they have a bit of savings, or a paid-off car, or they are not sure how the household income adds up. My advice to them is always the same: apply anyway. It is free to ask, and court staff will assess it against the actual criteria. The worst case is a no, and even then you can ask a judge to look at it. There is no penalty for trying, and a lot of people in this middle group qualify when they thought they would not.

The person at the enforcement stage. One pattern people forget about: the waiver is not only for the start of a case. If you already have a judgment and now you are trying to collect on it — booking an examination, garnishing wages, filing the paperwork to enforce — those steps carry their own fees too. Someone whose finances have worsened since they filed, or who only learns about the waiver later, can still ask for it at the enforcement office. I mention this because plenty of people who paid their way through the early stages assume the door is closed by the time they are trying to actually get paid. It is not.

Step-by-step: how to apply for a fee waiver

The mechanics are not complicated. Here is how it goes in practice, and I have laid it out as the steps I would walk a client through.

1. Decide which path you are on

Before you fill anything out, figure out whether you are in the automatic group (your main income is OW, ODSP, OAS + GIS, War Veterans Allowance, a Family Benefits allowance, or CPP) or whether you will be relying on the income test. That tells you what proof to gather. If you are automatic, you mainly need your benefit statement; if you are using the income test, you need income and asset documents.

2. Complete the Fee Waiver Request form

You fill out a Fee Waiver Request form. It asks about your income and financial circumstances and is designed to be completed without a lawyer. Be accurate and complete — the most common reason a request stalls is missing information, not ineligibility.

3. Gather your proof of income

Attach proof that matches your path: a benefit statement if you are automatic, or income documents like a tax return or notice of assessment, recent pay stubs, and details of your assets if you are on the income test. The goal is to give staff enough to confirm you fit the criteria. More on this in the next section.

4. Submit it to the right place

You bring the completed request and your proof to court staff at the courthouse — or, if you are at the enforcement stage trying to collect on a judgment, to the enforcement office. You submit it before you would otherwise pay the relevant fee. It is always free to make the request.

5. Let staff review it (and go to a judge if needed)

Court staff review your request. If they grant it, you receive a fee waiver certificate that covers the fees going forward. If staff do not grant it, you can ask a judge to decide based on your full financial circumstances. Either way, you have not paid the fee — you have simply asked to have it waived, and the question of eligibility gets resolved before money changes hands.

Will asking for a waiver slow my case down?

In a clean case, not meaningfully. An automatic-eligibility request with a benefit statement attached is often handled at the counter on the spot. Where it can add a little time is if your proof is incomplete and you have to come back, or if staff cannot grant it and you need a judge to weigh in. That is an argument for getting the documents right the first time, not an argument against applying. The few minutes the request takes are nothing compared to the fee it can save you.

What you need to provide

The whole request stands or falls on your proof of income, so it is worth getting this part right. What you provide depends on which path you are on, but the principle is the same: give staff enough to see clearly that you qualify.

If you qualify automatically, the key document is a benefit statement showing your main household income comes from a listed benefit — ODSP, Ontario Works, OAS with GIS, a Family Benefits allowance, War Veterans Allowance, or CPP. That statement does most of the work, because it puts you squarely in the automatic group without the asset-and-net-worth analysis.

If you are using the income test, you generally provide a fuller financial picture: a recent income tax return or notice of assessment, recent pay stubs to show current income, and information about your household assets so staff can assess your liquid assets and net worth against the limits. If you share a household, the income and assets being looked at are the household's, not just yours individually.

A practical tip from experience: bring more than you think you need, neatly organized. The fastest way to a clean approval is to make it easy for staff to see at a glance that you fit the criteria. The slowest path is a half-filled form with a vague reference to income and no documents to back it up.

One more thing on documents, because it trips people up. The proof you bring should be recent and it should match what you have written on the form. If your pay stubs show a different income than the number on the request, or your benefit statement is a year old, staff have to stop and reconcile the difference — and that is where a same-day approval turns into a come-back-later. Pull fresh documents before you go. If you cannot lay your hands on a recent notice of assessment, you can request one from the Canada Revenue Agency, and a current benefit statement is usually easy to obtain from whichever program you are on. A little prep here saves you a second trip to the courthouse.

Which fees are covered (and the limits)

The waiver covers the fees the court charges to process your case at each stage. In Small Claims Court, that typically includes:

• The claim filing fee — the fee to file your Plaintiff's Claim.
• The defence fee — the fee a defendant pays to file a Defence.
• The fee to set a matter down for trial / the trial fee.
• Motion fees — the fees to bring a motion.
• Many enforcement fees — the fees for steps like examinations and garnishments when you are collecting on a judgment.

In other words, the fees you would otherwise hand over at the court counter to keep your case moving. You can see what many of those fees actually amount to using the Small Claims Court filing fee calculator, and there is a broader breakdown in my guide to fees and costs.

Here is the limit that matters most. The waiver covers court fees — it does not cover third-party costs. It will not pay a process server to serve your documents, it will not pay a bailiff, and it certainly will not pay for a lawyer or paralegal. Those are separate expenses you carry whether or not your court fees are waived. So when you are budgeting a case, treat the waiver as removing the court-counter line items, not every dollar a lawsuit can cost. If you are weighing whether the whole exercise is worth it on a smaller claim, I dig into that math in is it worth suing for $2,000 and more broadly in the cost to sue someone in Ontario.

Common mistakes

A few errors come up over and over with the fee waiver, and each one is avoidable once you know to watch for it.

Paying the fee first, then asking for a refund. This is the big one. The waiver works going forward — a fee waiver certificate generally cannot be used to refund a fee you have already paid. People hand over the filing fee at the counter, get their case started, and only afterward learn about the waiver. By then the money is usually gone. Ask about the waiver before you pay anything, every time.

Assuming you do not qualify. So many people rule themselves out without applying — they are working, or they have a little savings, or they simply assume the bar is "destitute." But the income test exists precisely for people who are not on benefits and still cannot reasonably spare the fees. It is free to ask. Do not self-reject before you have actually checked your numbers against the criteria.

A business trying to use it. The waiver is for individuals, full stop. I have seen people running a small business or a corporation assume that tight cash flow qualifies the company. It does not. If a corporation is the party in the case, it pays the standard fees. The waiver is not a tool for businesses, and trying to use it that way just wastes time.

Submitting an incomplete request. A thin, half-documented request is the most common reason things stall. It is not usually a rejection on the merits — it is missing proof. Fill out the form properly and attach the documents that show your income and, if relevant, your assets. A complete request gets a clean answer faster.

Does a fee waiver affect who pays costs at the end?

A waiver deals with the fees you pay the court to run your case — it is separate from the question of cost awards between the parties at the end. If you win, the usual rules about a losing party contributing to your costs still apply, and if you lose, you can still be exposed to the other side's costs. In other words, the waiver lowers your out-of-pocket court fees along the way; it does not change the costs consequences of the result. Keep those two ideas separate when you weigh whether to proceed.

What happens after you apply

Once you submit the Fee Waiver Request with your proof, court staff review it. This is an administrative review at the counter level, and for clear cases — particularly automatic-eligibility ones with a benefit statement attached — it can be straightforward. If staff are satisfied you qualify, you receive a fee waiver certificate, and the fees it covers are waived from that point forward.

If staff do not grant the request, you are not stuck. You can ask a judge to decide, and the judge considers your full financial circumstances rather than just what the counter saw. Sometimes a staff refusal really just reflects incomplete proof, so it is always worth finding out what was missing and supplying it — a gap you can fix should not be mistaken for a no on the merits.

The crucial structural point is that none of this requires you to pay first and argue later. You are resolving the eligibility question before the fee is due. A refusal does not flip you into "pay now" mode — it just means your eligibility has not yet been confirmed and may need a judge to look at it. Keep that sequence in mind and you protect yourself from the refund trap entirely.

Settlement and practical considerations

I want to put the fee waiver in its proper place in a case, because it solves one problem and not others. The waiver gets you in the door — it removes the court fees that might otherwise stop you from filing at all. That is genuinely important. But it does not, on its own, make a weak case strong or a poor debtor collectible.

So once the fee barrier is gone, the same hard questions remain. Is your claim solid? Is the other side likely to fight? And critically, if you win, can the defendant actually pay? A fee waiver does nothing for you if you spend a year getting a judgment against someone with no income and no assets. That is why, even when the waiver removes the upfront cost, I still walk people through whether the case is worth pursuing on the merits.

The waiver can also quietly shift the negotiation. If you genuinely could not have afforded to file without it, then being able to file at all puts a real claim back on the table — and a real, properly filed claim is what gives you leverage to settle. Many cases resolve once the other side sees you are actually prepared to proceed. If you want a candid read on whether your situation is worth filing in the first place, that is exactly what a free consultation is for, and it is a sensible first step before you invest any time in the paperwork.

Key takeaways

• The waiver exists so money is not the barrier. Ontario's court fee waiver, under O. Reg. 2/05 of the Administration of Justice Act, lets individuals who cannot afford court fees file and run a case without paying them.
• Benefits can mean automatic eligibility. If your main household income is OW, ODSP, OAS + GIS, a Family Benefits allowance, War Veterans Allowance, or CPP, you generally qualify automatically — no income test.
• There is an income test for everyone else. Workers not on benefits may still qualify based on gross household income (which varies by household size), liquid assets under about $2,800, and net worth under about $11,100 — figures to confirm as current.
• Ask before you pay. A fee waiver certificate generally cannot refund a fee you already paid. Request the waiver before you hand over any money at the counter.
• It covers court fees, not everything. It waives filing, defence, trial, motion, and many enforcement fees — but not process servers, bailiffs, or your own lawyer or paralegal, and it is for individuals, not businesses.

Frequently asked questions

Can I get Small Claims Court fees waived if I cannot afford them?

Yes. Ontario has a court fee waiver, made under O. Reg. 2/05 of the Administration of Justice Act, for people who genuinely cannot afford court fees. It applies in Small Claims Court, family court, and civil court. The idea is that money should not be the reason you cannot access the court. It is for individuals, not businesses, and it is always free to request. The most important practical point is timing: ask for the waiver before you pay, because a waiver generally will not refund a fee you have already handed over.

Who qualifies for a fee waiver in Ontario?

Two groups qualify. First, people whose main household income comes from certain government benefits — Ontario Works, ODSP, a Family Benefits allowance, Old Age Security with the Guaranteed Income Supplement, War Veterans Allowance, or Canada Pension Plan benefits — generally qualify automatically. Second, people who do not receive those benefits may still qualify under an income test that looks at gross household income, liquid assets, and net worth. The waiver is for individuals who cannot afford the fees, not for businesses, organizations, or cases where a lawyer is paying your fees on contingency.

Do I automatically qualify if I am on ODSP or Ontario Works?

Generally, yes. If your main source of household income is the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) or Ontario Works (OW), you usually fall into the automatic-eligibility group and do not have to work through the income test at all. The same automatic path applies to a Family Benefits allowance, Old Age Security with the Guaranteed Income Supplement, War Veterans Allowance, and Canada Pension Plan benefits. You still complete the fee waiver request and show proof — typically your benefit statement — but you are not doing the asset-and-net-worth math that the income test requires.

What is the income test for an Ontario fee waiver?

If you do not qualify automatically through benefits, there is an income test. In broad terms, you may qualify if your total gross annual household income is below a set threshold that varies by household size, your household liquid assets are under roughly $2,800, and your household net worth is under roughly $11,100. Treat those figures as approximate — they can be updated, so confirm the current numbers before you rely on them. The test is meant to capture people who are not on benefits but still cannot reasonably afford court fees out of available money.

How do I apply for a fee waiver?

You complete a Fee Waiver Request form and submit it to court staff (or the enforcement office, if you are enforcing a judgment) along with proof of your income. It is always free to make the request. Court staff review it. If they grant it, you get a fee waiver certificate that covers the fees going forward. If staff do not grant it, you can ask a judge to decide based on your financial circumstances. The key is to file the request before you would otherwise pay the fee — not after.

What documents do I need for a fee waiver?

You need proof of your income and financial situation. If you qualify automatically, that usually means a benefit statement showing you receive ODSP, Ontario Works, OAS with GIS, or another listed benefit. If you are going through the income test, you generally provide things like a recent income tax return or notice of assessment, recent pay stubs, and information about your household assets. The goal is to give staff enough to see that you fall within the automatic group or under the income, liquid-asset, and net-worth limits.

Which court fees does the fee waiver cover?

It covers the court fees you would otherwise pay to move your case along: the claim filing fee, the fee to file a defence, the fee to set a matter down for trial, motion fees, and many enforcement fees such as those for examinations and garnishments. In short, it covers the fees the court itself charges. It does not pay third-party costs — process servers, a bailiff, or your own lawyer or paralegal. It removes the court-counter fees, which for many people are the barrier standing between them and filing.

Can a business or company get a fee waiver?

No. The fee waiver is for individuals who cannot afford court fees, not for corporations, businesses, or organizations. If a company is suing or being sued in Small Claims Court, it pays the normal fees regardless of how tight its cash flow is. The waiver also is not available where a lawyer is paying your fees for you under a contingency-fee arrangement — in that situation, the fees are being covered, so the access-to-justice problem the waiver exists to solve is not present.

What if my fee waiver request is refused?

If court staff do not grant your request, that is not the end of it. You can ask a judge to decide, and the judge looks at your full financial circumstances rather than just the paperwork the counter saw. Sometimes a refusal is simply because the proof was incomplete, so it is worth checking what was missing and supplying it. Either way, you should sort this out before you pay — a refusal does not force you to pay first, it just means your eligibility has not yet been confirmed and may need a judge to look at it.

Can I get a refund if I already paid the fee?

Usually not, and this is the single most important thing to get right. A fee waiver certificate generally cannot be used to refund a fee you have already paid — it works going forward, not backward. So if you think you might qualify, request the waiver before you hand over any money at the court counter. People who pay first and then learn about the waiver often cannot recover that fee. When in doubt, ask staff about the waiver before you pay anything.

Final thoughts

The part of this that genuinely bothers me is how many people never file a fair claim because they assume the cost of admission is fixed. It often is not. Ontario built the fee waiver so that someone on ODSP, a low-income worker, or a person caught in a rough financial stretch can still use the court. If that is you, the fees are very likely not the obstacle you think they are.

Two reminders will carry you most of the way. First, ask about the waiver before you pay — the certificate works forward, not backward, and the refund trap catches people every year. Second, do not rule yourself out. The income test is designed for people who are working and still cannot comfortably afford the fees, and it is always free to apply. If you are unsure, gather your proof and ask staff; the worst answer is a no you can take to a judge. For the practical mechanics of starting a claim once the fee question is handled, see my guide on how to sue in Small Claims Court in Ontario, and use the Small Claims Court calculator to sanity-check the numbers.

And if you want a straight answer on whether your case is worth pursuing — fees aside — call 416-554-1639 or book a free consultation. A short conversation can tell you whether the waiver clears your path, and whether the claim behind it is worth your time.