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One paragraph in your employment contract usually decides whether your severance is eight weeks or eight months. Our office is at Sheppard and Yonge, a short walk from the courthouse where every Toronto Small Claims case is now heard.
Start My Enquiry →Our North York office, 2 Sheppard Ave E at Sheppard-Yonge | Toronto Small Claims Court, 47 Sheppard Ave E | Initial Assessments
People come to us with a severance offer and a question about whether it is fair. The honest answer usually turns on a single paragraph they signed years ago and have not read since.
Ontario law presumes that an indefinite employment contract can be ended only on reasonable notice, which is assessed on the character of the employment, length of service, age, and how readily comparable work can be found. That presumption is generous, and it is rebuttable. An employer who wants to pay less has to point to an enforceable term in the contract that says so.
The catch is that a termination clause which does not comply with the Employment Standards Act is unenforceable, and when it falls the common law presumption comes back in full. So the same dismissal can be worth eight weeks or eight months depending on how carefully a clause was drafted, often years earlier by someone who never expected it to be tested.
That is why the first thing we do is read the agreement rather than count the years. It is also why an employer who wants predictable exit costs should have the clause reviewed now rather than after a dismissal.
North York is part of the City of Toronto, so employment claims follow the Toronto civil structure. One of the two courthouses is a short walk from our office.
This is the Small Claims Court for the whole City of Toronto, and it hears claims of up to $50,000, exclusive of interest and costs, since the limit rose from $35,000 on 1 October 2025. A great many severance claims now fit inside it, which changes the economics of bringing one. The same building also houses one of Toronto’s two Ontario Court of Justice family courthouses.
Wrongful and constructive dismissal claims above $50,000, and claims on an employment contract. The Simplified Procedure applies to claims of up to $200,000, which covers the majority of severance actions. Filing in Toronto is done electronically.
Our North York office at 2 Sheppard Avenue East is on the subway at Sheppard-Yonge, with parking in the building.
A termination clause has to comply with the Employment Standards Act to be worth anything, and the ways they fail are well known: language that could allow less than the statutory minimum in some circumstance, wording that removes benefits during the notice period, a separate just cause provision that sets a lower standard than the statute permits, or a clause drafted for a different role and never updated.
When a clause fails it does not get read down to something lawful. It is unenforceable, and the employee is entitled to reasonable notice at common law instead. That is the whole argument in a very large share of severance files, and it is decided on the page rather than on the facts.
There are other routes to the same result. A clause agreed at the start of a long career may not survive a promotion or a fundamental change in the role. And a clause introduced part way through employment without anything given in return may fail for want of consideration.
We will tell you plainly whether the clause in your contract is likely to hold. If it is, the negotiation is about the margins and we will say so rather than charge you to find out.
Most severance matters settle without a claim being issued, and most improve on the first offer. What moves an employer is a clear, specific and well supported calculation delivered before the offer deadline, not a threat.
Where a claim has to be issued, the choice of forum matters more than it used to. With the Small Claims limit at $50,000 and the courthouse at 47 Sheppard a short walk from this office, a claim that would once have been uneconomic in the Superior Court is now worth bringing.
A significant unilateral change to pay, duties, reporting or location can end the contract. Resigning on a mistaken view of that generally ends the claim instead, which is why this is the advice worth getting early.
The safest course is almost always to object in writing, keep working under protest, and take advice in the same week the change is announced.
Our North York office is at 2 Sheppard Avenue East, Suite 303, directly at Sheppard-Yonge station, with parking in the building and the Toronto Small Claims Court a short walk away. Most matters qualify for a no-obligation initial assessment, in person, by telephone or by video. Bring the employment contract and the severance offer, and we can usually tell you at the first meeting what the claim is worth.
2 Sheppard Ave East, Suite 303
Toronto, ON M2N 5Y7
At Sheppard-Yonge station, a short walk from 47 Sheppard Ave E
55 University Ave, Suite 1100, Toronto, ON M5J 2H7
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