Community Legal Assistance Society - BC Judicial Review Self-Help Guide

What is a Judicial Review?

BC Judicial Review Self-Help Guide

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A judicial review is a court action in which a judge reviews the decision of a tribunal or other legal decision-maker for serious errors or unfairness.

Tribunals are decision-makers set up by the government to resolve disputes and make decisions. For example, the Residential Tenancy Branch is a tribunal that adjudicates disputes between tenants and landlords. The Employment and Assistance Appeal Tribunal is a tribunal that considers appeals about income assistance and disability assistance.

This website explains how to represent yourself in a judicial review in the BC Supreme Court. It does not apply to judicial reviews in other courts such as the Federal Court (Canada). Select the tribunal that you have a decision from to learn more about the steps involved in a judicial review:

We recommend the use of the above web-based versions of the guide. If you are looking for a PDF version of the guide to print out, see this site’s print publications section. If you have any problems opening up the blank or example documents, please email us at info@clasbc.net and tell us which documents you are having trouble with.

Judicial Review Blog Series

In these blog series, we provide a basic explanation of the main elements of Judicial Review. (Please note, these links will take you to another website.)

Intro to Judicial Review

Part 1: What is Judicial Review?
Part 2: Stay Applications
Part 3: Administrative Tribunals
Part 4: Glossary of Terms
Part 5: The Basics of Patent Unreasonableness
Part 6: The Basics of Procedural Fairness

Advanced Topics in Judicial Review

  1. Adequacy of Reasons

This website, jrbc.ca or judicialreviewbc.ca, is produced for educational purposes only. This website has information on common situations, but does not cover all possible situations. You should not rely on this website as legal advice. If you have a legal problem, you should get legal advice on your particular situation.

This website may contain inaccurate or misleading information. The law, including statutes, regulations, court rules, court practices, and court precedents can change without warning and those changes may not be reflected in this website. The Community Legal Assistance Society, its funders, its authors, its contributors, its editors, and the distributors of this website are not responsible for ensuring this website is up-to-date, ensuring the completeness or accuracy of the information contained in this website, or any form of damages or monetary loss caused by or attributed to the use of this website, including but not limited to claims based on negligence or breach of contract.

Site by the Community Legal Assistance Society. Content available under Creative Commons CC BY-NC licence. This guide is made possible by funding from the British Columbia Ministry of Justice and the Law Foundation of British Columbia. This guide was originally produced by David Mossop, Q.C.
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