Litigation search

A litigation search looks through court records for proceedings that name the business, its owners or its guarantors. A buyer can run it in due diligence, alongside a lien search and questions to the seller about claims. This entry describes Ontario’s access rule only; check the rule in each province where you search.

What a search can show

In Ontario, section 137(1) of the Courts of Justice Act entitles a person, on payment of the prescribed fee, to see any document filed in a civil proceeding in a court, unless an Act or a court order provides otherwise. Ontario’s Rules of Civil Procedure count a proceeding commenced by statement of claim as an action. A search can therefore find a filed claim. It cannot find a dispute nobody has filed.

What to ask

• Which courts, and which names (the corporation, former names, the owners), were searched.
• Whether any file is sealed. Section 137(2) lets an Ontario court order that a filed document be treated as confidential, sealed and not form part of the public record.
• Whether the claim names the business or only the seller personally. See what to do about a lawsuit against the business.
• Whether a search was also run in every other province where the business operates, since this entry covers only Ontario’s rule.