Most courts and other quasi-judicial bodies encourage parties to settle. For example, case conferences and settlement conferences are mandatory under both the Family Law Rules and the Rules of Civil Procedure. They are designed to help the parties screen out non-contentious issues and expedite the proceedings.
Other quasi-judicial bodies, including the Landlord and Tenant Board and [...]

Continuing on this week’s topic of administrative law, I’d like to talk about the Human Rights Code* and administrative tribunals.
Section 17 of the Ontario Human Rights Code provides the following:
17. (1) A right of a person under this Act is not infringed for the reason only that the person is incapable of performing or fulfilling [...]

Administrative law is one area of law often overlooked by lawyers.
Perhaps it’s because one need not be a lawyer to appear before administrative tribunals (licensing and exemptions are available), or maybe it’s because the monetary stakes are not high enough to justify a lawyer’s fees. Therefore, sometimes it can be tough to find a competent [...]

Recently I attended a continuing legal education session hosted by the Toronto Lawyers Association. The topic was Ontario’s new process for human rights complaints. I’d like to briefly explain the new process here.
Under the old process, all human rights complaints had to be filed with the Human Rights Commission. The Commission would investigate the claims, [...]

As a lawyer, I constantly hear people complaining about discrimination and how they want to sue “those bastards.”
Examples include:
“They won’t hire me because I’m fat,”
“They won’t rent me an apartment because I have a criminal record,” and
“They’re trying to kick me out because I’m an addict.”
While I think it is wonderful that people are assertive [...]