Tribunal Services:

Question: How can a paralegal help me with administrative tribunal proceedings in Ontario, and what should I do before the hearing?

Answer: A paralegal from Civil Litigations Paralegal Services can help you prepare for Ontario administrative tribunal proceedings by reviewing your case materials, organizing evidence, drafting or refining your submissions, and supporting you with hearing strategy so you understand key deadlines and procedural fairness steps before the tribunal hearing.   For faster next steps, call (416) 229-1479 to discuss your situation and get guidance on document preparation, witness readiness, and what to expect during a less formal, often quicker tribunal process across agencies and boards in Ontario.   If you need advocacy at a hearing, the team at Civil Litigations Paralegal Services can help you present your position clearly to the tribunal’s adjudicator or panel in line with the tribunal’s rules and process.

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Professional Advocacy Within Tribunal Proceedings

Administrative tribunals review and adjudicate various matters involving disputes between private citizens, between citizens and various levels of government, or between businesses and certain levels of government, as well as by providing regulatory body governance that often involves the oversight, licensing, and disciplinary proceedings, of professional persons.

Quite literally, administrative tribunals operating within each Province may consist in the hundreds and include a variety of agencies, boards, bureaus, commissions, among other entities, whose duties and roles are to conduct quasi-judicial hearings and issue binding decisions.

As adjudicative bodies, administrative tribunals operate in parallel to the court system; and although administrative tribunal processes and settings will appear similar to the courts, administrative tribunals operate independently of the court system.  Generally, there are two primary differences between administrative tribunals and courts:

1. The administrative tribunals are set up for the purpose and expectation of being a less formal, a less expensive, and a faster process, for the resolution of legal issues than that which exists within the courts; and
2. The tribunal members, being the adjudicators who conduct hearings and render decisions, usually possess special subject matter knowledge on the legal issue topics as addressed by the specific tribunal which is in contrast to court judges who will possess general knowledge in many respects of the law while lacking specific topic expertise.

Many tribunals operate with a single adjudicator conducting the hearing; however, in some tribunal settings, a hearing panel will sit in the adjudicative decision-making role, especially for the hearing of cases of extra-special importance or involving complicated concerns.  The adjudicators will be specially trained for the types of cases conducted by the respective tribunal.  Similar to judges within courts, tribunal adjudicators are required to conduct hearings in accordance to the common law rules of procedural fairness as well as the procedural rules applicable to the specific tribunal.

Tribunal Advocacy Services Include: