FYI: You Can Sue the Person Who Didn't Give Back the Money He Borrowed from your Sari-Sari Store!

People tend to borrow money from their friends when being broke. But Did you know that those who nabbed money from you, intentionally or not can now be sued? Don't bother too anymore, because there's still a chance for you to get your money back.

Thanks to former Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato Puno, we now have the Rule of Procedure for Small Claims Cases which allows any individual or business to file a case against someone who owes them money.

According to the video below, it shows how to file a small claim case in the Philippines. You can do it even without lawyer. It increased from P100, 000 to P200, 000 exclusive of interest and costs the amount or value of the claim falling within the jurisdiction of small claim courts.

If the money being claimed is more than that amount, then the plaintiff would have to go to regular court.

Here are the basic steps in filing for a Small Claims Case in the Philippines

1. Go to either one of these places to file your case:

First level court of the city where you live
First level court of the city where your debtor (defendant) lives

2. First level courts are defined as any of the following:

Metropolitan Trial Court
Municipal Trial Courts in Cities
Municipal Trial Court
Municipal Circuit Trial Courts

3. Go to the Office of the Clerk of Court and fill up the following form:

Information for Plaintiff
Statement of Claim
Certification of Non-Forum Shopping

4. As plaintiff, you would also need to accomplish a Verified Statement of Claim which certifies that all information you gave is correct and you have not filed the same case in any other court.

5. You would also need to provide other important documents that will show sufficient proof that the loan occurred, this can be ANY of the following: