Find out how you can follow the process of suing your bookkeeper in Canada. Learn your rights as a business owner, consider mediation, and prepare for trial to safeguard your enterprise.
Bookkeepers are key players in the administration workplaces of a business. Their role is to update the records and keep them accurate.
Still, what will happen if the bookkeeper makes a mistake that is not in favour of your business? Or maybe even fraudulent ones? You have every right to sue these types of bookkeepers out of business as a small or medium-sized business owner.
So, here is how you can sue a bookkeeper in Canada if they do not work as per the agreed terms.
To take proper legal action, you should know the problem in detail. Is it merely a mistake on your financial account or as bad as fraud? Review your records thoroughly. After reviewing for differences, ensure they are not trivial differences that can be easily tweaked to get the right results. One must collect some proof of the bookkeeper’s negligence or misconduct.
Consult a lawyer after increasing your consciousness of the issue. Lawyers help clear the picture in front of you and show what legal aspects are open for the action. They can also tell you the strength of your position.
In addition, when you provide them with convincing proof then they can brief you about the legal procedures of how to file the lawsuit. Choose your lawyer wisely as you will need the services of a business law and financial litigation attorney for this type of case.
Firstly, if you intend to take your matter to court, the important step is to consider a mediation option. Mediation is the process where two parties, in the presence of a third party with no interests, try to solve resolve the disputes. Arbitration is also seen as an efficient alternative to the courts; it takes less time and is particularly cheaper than court proceedings because it does not require a long process of litigation.
Mediation tends to involve the parties entering into some middle-ground resolution. If the dispute cannot be resolved by mediation, then you could end up in court.
If mediation fails, the last step is to file a lawsuit against the bookkeeper. Accordingly, your lawyer may help you prepare and file the necessary legal papers for court. The documents also list the allegations with proof.
To prove your case, you will need evidence of the fact that what they said was untrue regarding any action taken by the bookkeeper which resulted in financial detriment.
Your lawyer will assist you in compiling such evidence and preparing your witness statement. The accused is responsible for proving innocence, so the approach must be holistic.
Both parties lay their evidence at trial and prove their cases with the legal arsenal. Depending on that, your lawyer will stand for you and tell the court your side of the story. It will be the time for the bookkeeper to explain their course of action.
Finally, the judge will look at all the evidence collected and pass judgment. In most cases, if you are the plaintiff and you have proved your case, the judge can award you a sum of money you lost.
They might, but if they do not pay your debt, you may have to sue them; in the event that no payment is made, however, or their assets can be seized.
After getting to solution, one must avoid it happening again via everything that can be done. In particular, consider the current organizational recruitment and employment processes. Additionally, you may also need to create even stricter financial controls to avoid errors on the one hand and detect fraudulent activities on the other.
If you are considering suing your bookkeeper, it is serious and should not be taken lightly, making it extremely time-consuming as you have to cycle through the process a few hundred times before delay suffers. If you think your bookkeeper has played a significant role in the siphoning of business from your firm, then legal action must be taken. At Online Accountants, we consider that financial management is the nuts and bolts of any business. You can protect your business and its right to administer justice using the abovementioned method.
