How to Fill Out and File the Alberta Statement of Claim (Form 10)

To start a civil lawsuit in Alberta for up to $100,000, you file the Alberta Statement of Claim (Form 10) at a provincial courthouse, pay a filing fee of $100 or $200, and then arrange for the defendant to be served.¹ The form itself (CTS3780) is a fill-in-the-blank PDF you can download from the Alberta Courts website.² You do not need a lawyer to complete it, but every field matters. An incomplete form gets sent back at the counter.

What Form 10 Covers

Form 10 is used in the Alberta Court of Justice, Civil Division, to recover debts, damages, or personal property worth up to $100,000.¹ Claims above that ceiling go to the Court of King’s Bench and use different forms. The form is designed around the most common civil disputes: unpaid invoices, breach of contract, and property damage.

Filling Out the Form

Party Information

Start with the full legal names and current addresses of every party. Use your legal name as it appears on government identification. For individual defendants, use their full legal name and residential address. If you are unsure of a defendant’s legal name, or whether a business is a corporation, sole proprietorship, or partnership, search the Alberta Corporate Registry before filing.³ Getting this wrong creates real problems later at the service and enforcement stages. A judgment against the wrong legal entity is essentially worthless.

Nature and Details of the Claim

The form asks you to select the nature of your claim from preset categories such as debt for unpaid goods, breach of contract, or property damage. Pick the one that best fits your situation, then write a brief summary of the facts: what happened, when it happened, and why the defendant owes you money or property. Keep the narrative focused on facts rather than argument. The court needs enough detail for the defendant to understand what they are accused of and to prepare a response.

Amount Claimed

State the dollar amount you are claiming. This figure cannot exceed $100,000.¹ If your claim involves more than one issue, such as an unpaid invoice and separate property damage from the same dispute, list each amount individually. Specify whether the amount is liquidated (a fixed, calculable sum like an unpaid invoice) or unliquidated (an estimated figure for something like pain and suffering or lost business). The distinction affects how default judgment works later if the defendant does not respond.

Filing at the Courthouse

Bring the completed form to the clerk’s office at any provincial courthouse. You need to bring:⁴

One original for the court’s file
One copy for your records
One copy for each named defendant

The filing fee depends on the value of your claim:⁵

Claims up to $7,500: $100
Claims over $7,500 up to $100,000: $200

You pay when you file. The clerk checks that all required fields are completed, then dates, signs, and stamps the form and assigns a unique file number. That number follows the case through every stage. Keep it on every document you file going forward. The clerk returns your stamped copies, which you use for service on the defendants.

Fee Waiver for Low-Income Plaintiffs

If you cannot afford the fee and you are filing as an individual (not on behalf of a business or estate), you can apply to have it waived. Fill out an Application for Fee Waiver and Statement of Finances and submit it at the same registry where you are filing the claim. Income thresholds are based on gross family income and household size. A single person qualifies with gross annual income below $26,760; a household of four qualifies below $49,727.⁶ Bring your most recent tax return or notice of assessment, or three months of pay stubs for all household earners. The waiver covers filing fees only. Other costs like photocopying or search fees still apply.

Serving the Defendant

Filing does not notify the defendant. You are responsible for delivering a stamped copy to every person or entity you named, and you have 12 months from the filing date to get it done. Miss that window and the claim expires. The person who delivers the documents cannot be you. It must be a third party over 18 who is not a party to the lawsuit, such as a process server or a friend.

Acceptable service methods depend on the type of defendant.⁷

Individuals

Personal service: leave the documents directly with the defendant at any location.
Residence service: leave them at the defendant’s usual home with someone who lives there and appears to be at least 16. Posting them to the door does not count.
Recorded mail: send by recorded delivery. Keep the original mail receipt and the signed acknowledgment of receipt. You need both for your proof-of-service filing.

Corporations

Leave documents at the corporation’s registered office as listed on the Corporate Registry.³
Send them to the registered office by recorded mail.
Serve a director personally, or serve someone who appears to manage the corporation at its principal Alberta office or at the location where the claim arose.

Partnerships and Extra-Provincial Corporations

For partnerships, serve any individual partner as you would an individual defendant, or serve a corporate partner as you would a corporation. For corporations incorporated outside Alberta but operating in the province, serve the attorney for service listed in the Corporate Registry, either in person or by recorded mail.⁷

Substituted Service

When you have genuinely tried standard methods and cannot reach the defendant, you can ask a justice to allow an alternative. File an Affidavit in Support of Substitutional Service explaining what you tried, how you propose to serve instead, and why the alternative method would actually reach the defendant.⁷ Common alternatives that courts approve include regular mail, email, social media, or newspaper advertising. Once the order is granted, serve a copy of the order along with the claim documents using the method the justice specified.

Service Outside Canada

If the defendant is in a country that is a party to the Hague Service Convention, you must follow the convention’s requirements for serving a commencement document like a Statement of Claim, typically through that country’s Central Authority.⁸ If the country is not a Hague member, or the member does not object to direct personal service, you can use the standard Affidavit and Order for Service Outside of Canada. Either way, you need a court order before serving internationally.

Filing the Affidavit of Service

After the defendant has been served, you prove it to the court by filing an Affidavit of Service (Form 37).² The person who performed the service fills out this sworn document, stating the date, location, and method used to deliver the claim.⁹ It must be sworn or affirmed before a commissioner for oaths in Alberta. If recorded mail was used, attach the original mail receipt and the signed acknowledgment of receipt.

File the completed affidavit with the court clerk. Without it on file, the court treats the defendant as unserved, which blocks you from moving forward, including from applying for default judgment.

What the Defendant Does Next

Once served, the defendant has 20 days to file a Dispute Note if served in Alberta, or 30 days if served elsewhere. If the deadline falls on a weekend, statutory holiday, or a day the court office is closed, it extends to the close of the next business day.¹⁰ The Dispute Note (Form 11) is the defendant’s answer. It lets them deny your allegations, raise a defense, or both.

The defendant can also file a Counterclaim (Form 21) at the same time as their Dispute Note.² A counterclaim up to $7,500 costs $100 to file; one over $7,500 costs $150.⁵ If a counterclaim is filed against you, the positions reverse for that portion, and you must respond to their claim.

Default Judgment When the Defendant Does Not Respond

If the response window passes with no Dispute Note, you can apply for default judgment. For a liquidated claim, you file a Certificate of Default Judgment, and the court typically issues the judgment within a few weeks. For an unliquidated claim, where damages need to be assessed, you file a Request to Note in Default along with a supporting affidavit that details your losses. The court reviews the materials and either issues a judgment for the amount it considers appropriate or schedules a hearing to question you about damages.

How the Court Moves the Case Forward

When both sides have filed, the court assigns the case to a resolution track. You receive written notice at the address you listed on the claim specifying the date, time, and location for the next step. Attendance is mandatory.¹¹

Possible tracks include:

Mediation, typically scheduled within four months of the last Dispute Note being filed. All parties must attend and may bring a lawyer or agent. A signed agreement can be enforced by the court if later broken. If mediation does not resolve the case, the file goes back for reassignment.
Pre-trial conference, a structured meeting with a justice to narrow the issues, explore settlement, and prepare for trial.
Simplified trial, a shorter and more informal hearing for less complex claims.
Trial, a full hearing where both sides present evidence and a justice makes a binding decision.
Binding judicial dispute resolution, where the parties agree to let a justice decide the case outside the formal trial process, and the result is final.

You do not choose your track. The court assigns what it considers appropriate based on the complexity of the claim and the amounts involved.¹¹

Collecting on a Judgment

Winning does not automatically put money in your hand. If the defendant does not pay voluntarily, you enforce the judgment by filing a Certificate of Judgment at the Court of King’s Bench in the judicial centre where the judgment was obtained.¹² From there, three main enforcement tools are available:

Writ of Enforcement: file four copies with the Court of King’s Bench, then register one with the Personal Property Registry. This creates a lien against the debtor’s personal property. It must be renewed every two years through a Status Report or your enforcement rights lapse.
Garnishment: a Garnishee Summons directs someone who owes money to the debtor, such as an employer or a bank, to pay you instead. For employment income, the summons lasts two years and can be renewed. For bank accounts, it expires after 60 days.
Seizure: after registering a Writ of Enforcement, you can hire a civil enforcement agency to seize the debtor’s property. The agency can sell seized property 15 days after serving the required notices, provided the debtor does not file an objection.

Before going the seizure route, search the Personal Property Registry to check whether other creditors have priority claims on the same assets. If they do, you may collect nothing after higher-priority creditors are paid.¹²

1
Alberta Court of Justice. Civil
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Alberta Courts. Civil Forms
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Alberta.ca. Find Corporation Details
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Alberta Courts. Filing a Civil Claim
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Alberta Courts. Filing Fees and Payments Into Court
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Alberta.ca. Waiving a Filing Fee
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Alberta Courts. Service of Documents
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Alberta Courts. Service Outside of Canada (Includes Hague Service Convention)
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Government of Alberta. Form CTS1451 – Affidavit of Service
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Alberta Courts. I Have Been Served With a Civil Claim, What Do I Do
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Alberta Courts. All the Claims and Disputes Have Been Filed, What Happens Next?
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Alberta Courts. Getting and Enforcing Your Judgment in Alberta