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ADMINISTRATIVE TRIBUNALS
"Administrative Tribunal" is term that can describe a wide
variety of boards, commissions, regulatory bodies or individuals
exercising power or authority pursuant to some governmental
mandate. At their most complex, administrative tribunals
may be sophisticated organizations such as, in Canada, the
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.
Other examples would include professional regulatory bodies
such as the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario
or the Law Society of Upper Canada (which regulates lawyers
in Ontario) and various municipal authorities such as committees
of adjustment and the like.
Administrative Tribunals differ from Courts in that their
members are not typically judges (although they can be),
they exercise limited jurisdiction (usually with respect
to specific tasks or subject matter, often where they are
expected to have special expertise judges do not have) and
they employ a wide variety of different procedural mechanisms
of greater or lesser complexity depending upon the nature
of their activities.
There are so many different administrative tribunals that
it is difficult to characterize them generally. So far as
civil litigation is concerned, it is important to note that
sometimes disputes that otherwise might be dealt with in
a court can be dealt with, in whole or in part, by administrative
tribunals. In some cases, administrative tribunals are exclusively
tasked with the resolution of certain kinds of issues, such
as, for example, the Copyright Board of Canada which determines
the rates to be paid for copyright royalties associated
with distribution of television programming in certain contexts.
Having an issue determined by an administrative
tribunal can involve witnesses, documentary evidence, and
legal argument just as a court proceeding does, although
it doesn't always. It is important in any given case to
know the rules and practices by which a tribunal operates.
While sometimes looking much like a court proceeding, a
tribunal proceeding may have very different requirements
concerning what is permissible evidence, and equally different
procedures that deal with exchange of information and documentation
amongst the participants in advance. One thing that is common
amongst courts and tribunals, however, is the necessity
for counsel to understand the particular procedure and rules
of evidence that apply, and to be persuasive within that
framework. Good civil litigators apply fundamentally the
same skills whether they are in a court or before an administrative
tribunal.
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Lloyd's View: Some tribunals are typically
attended upon by lawyers with special expertise in
connection with the subject matter usually dealt with
by the tribunals. Versatile civil litigation lawyers
often have the ability to apply their skills in a
variety of different court and administrative contexts.
The expertise associated with practice before a particular
tribunal is one factor to be considered when choosing
counsel for this purpose, but other factors, largely
as outlined in the "Choosing
Civil Litigation Counsel" section of this
website, should also be considered. Making sure you
have the right counsel for you and for the job, whether
before a court or administrative tribunal, is a key
part of intelligent litigating.
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