Have you ever wondered if it is worth to file a matter at court to claim for a small sum (i.e. not more than RM5000)?
Why not? Sometimes it’s not just about the money, especially when you do not want these irresponsible perpetrators to get away scotch free. Most of the time, such culprits will be thinking that filing a small claim is too cumbersome (financially and mentally) for one to undergo and therefore have no qualms to take this advantage to be bad paymasters.
Contrary to this popular belief, the procedures to file a small claim are simple and you may not even require much costs to take the matter to the Magistrates’ Court through the small claims procedure pursuant to Order 93 of the Rules of Court 2012 (“ROC”)[1].
Here are some important points to note with respect to filing small claims in the Magistrates’ Court:
- Applicable to individual person who is not an agent or assignee of any debt of another person.
- The disputed amount or value of the subject matter of the claim does not exceed RM5,000.
- Every such claim must be made in Form 198 (Note: Form 198 may be obtained from the Magistrates’ Court) and the plaintiff (i.e. the party initiating the claim) must state the amount and particulars of the claim in the said Form 198).
- The said Form 198 must then be:
- filed in four (4) copies in the Registry upon payment of prescribed fee (i.e. nominal fee); and
- served or posted to the last known address of the defendant by personal service or by prepaid registered post.
- Legal representation is not required except where the defendant is required by law to be represented by an authorized person.
- The Registrar will inform the plaintiff and the defendant of the hearing date.
- If the defendant does not file his defence within the required period or fails to attend the hearing, the court may give judgement for the plaintiff or may in its discretion adjourn the hearing to allow the defendant to file his defence.
- Where possible, the Court will assist the parties to effect settlement of a case by consent. However, if the matter is not settled, the Court may proceed to hear the case and give decision thereon or may adjourn the matter to another date for final disposal.
- At the hearing, the Court may ask the parties for further information such as, a short description of the claim and the defence if the same have not been sufficiently supplied earlier.
- The Court may award costs not more than RM100 to any one party.
- Once a judgment or order has been served, and the person against whom the judgment is made (“Judgment Debtor”) has not complied with the said judgment, the Court may after receiving a notice to show cause in Form 208 from the winning party:
- Order a writ of seizure and sale in Form 84 to the Judgment Debtor;
- Allow the Judgment Debtor time to settle the judgment debt , or pay the debt by installments; or
- Order the Judgment Debtor to be committed to prison.
Yuki Chong Mei Yoke is a Partner at Messrs. Afif Rahman & Chong
[1] Rules of Court 2012
