Difference between revisions of "Rights and Responsibilities of Self-Represented Litigants"

However, it is important to know that you do not have the right to complain to the Chief Judge or to the Canadian Judicial Council about the result of a hearing or trial. If you are unhappy with the result of a hearing or trial, you will usually be able to appeal the decision to another court or take some other step to challenge or try to change the result.

===Dealing with court staff===

====You should expect to have your business processed accurately and reasonably quickly====

However, the court staff cannot answer legal questions or give you legal advice. Court staff are not lawyers and cannot answer questions about the law or give legal advice. This can be very difficult at times, but only lawyers can give legal advice.

Court staff members are responsible for managing the business of the courts and assisting people involved in court proceedings. They do not work for the judges of the court, they cannot make legal decisions about your case, and they do not have the authority of a judicial officer. In general, court staff cannot:

==Your responsibilities==

Everyone who is involved in a court proceeding must follow the rules of the court. The rules of court govern every step in a court proceeding, from how a proceeding is started, to how parties are served with court documents, to how applications are made, to how a trial is scheduled and run. The rules of court also say which court forms must be used for different tasks and set out deadlines for things like replying to claims and applications, filing documents and exchanging information.

The rules of court apply to everybody, whether you have a lawyer or not, and there can be serious consequences if you don’t follow the rules. It is your responsibility to learn the rules that apply to you and your court proceeding. If you do not, you may lose the right to reply to a claim or an application, or you may lose the right to present certain kinds of evidence at your hearing or trial.

You should familiarize yourself with the law and legal principles that govern the issues in your court proceeding. You will be expected to prepare and present your own case at your hearing or trial.

Whether you are able to get legal advice or not, the rules of court and the laws of the federal government and the governments of each province and territory are available online, and university law libraries and most courthouse libraries are open to the public, although they may have restricted business hours. Many websites offer public legal information about the law, however you must make sure that the website you are reading provides information that applies in your province or territory.

Just as court staff members should be polite and courteous to you, you should be polite and courteous to court staff.

Court staff are required to follow the rules of court as well as the court’s internal procedures and protocols. These rules may prevent the court staff from processing your business as you would like or as quickly as you would like. Although this can be frustrating, it is important to remember that the court staff are doing their jobs in the manner they are required to do them, and that they can’t do much about how they are required to do them.

The judge is responsible for managing and deciding your court proceeding and you owe respect to the judge for the job he or she must do, for the years the judge has spent learning the law and court procedures, and for his or her role in society. Among other things, this means standing, assuming you are able to stand, when you are speaking to the judge or when the judge enters or leaves the room, addressing the judge by the proper title, being polite when you are speaking to the judge and not interrupting when the judge is speaking.

:''[http://canlii.ca/t/4gz0 Wagg v. Canada]'', 2003 FCA 303  

:''[http://canlii.ca/t/1q24f Seminatore v. Banks]'', 2006 NBCA 110