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 lawyer to handle your administrative law case.

Generally, the powers of the administrative tribunals come from the enabling legislation. For example, the Landlord and Tenant Board‘s power comes from the Residential Tenancies Act; the Social Benefits Tribunal, from the Ontario Works Act; the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, from the Human Rights Code.

In addition to the enabling legislation, the tribunals are subject to the general framework provided by the Statutory Powers Procedure Act (SPPA). Under the SPPA, tribunals are allowed to establish their own rules of practice and to control the process.

Finally, besides the statutory powers, the powers of an administrative tribunal are also limited by the common law and the constitution. In fact, many of the most profound changes to the area of administrative law in the past decade have come from the courts’ interpretation of the common law and the constitution. The principle of procedural fairness is one illuminating example.

Therefore, to properly prosecute or defend a case before a particular tribunal requires an intimate understanding of the foregoing sources of law, as well as the rules established by the given tribunal.

Hence, appearing before an administrative properly is not “a job that anyone will do.”