What is a Case Assessment Direction, and how do I answer it?
A Case Assessment Direction (CAD) is an order requiring you to file three things by a fixed date: a witness list, witness statements, and a case summary. It usually arrives years after filing, often before any hearing. Filing the wrong documents, or filing late, can have your application deemed abandoned — dismissed without anyone weighing what happened to you.
In one Thunder Bay file, the applicant filed documents but not the three required items; a second direction followed; still incomplete; dismissed. Reconsideration denied. For a self-represented person, the CAD is a litigation-skills examination, unannounced, with dismissal as the failing grade. Province-wide, Tribunal Watch Ontario's review found something worse: in 2023–24, 29 of 39 successful reconsiderations were granted because of the Tribunal's own administrative errors — mostly its failure to upload documents applicants had in fact submitted.
What to have ready from the day you file
The CAD's demands are predictable, which means they are preparable — years early:
- Witness list — every person who saw or heard anything relevant: name, contact, one line on what each can speak to. Start it the week you file; memories and phone numbers decay.
- Witness statements — what each witness would say, in their words, signed and dated while fresh. These double as the contemporaneous record the Records Guide explains.
- Case summary — your allegations, in order, each tied to the evidence and the Code ground it engages. The Records Guide's documentation discipline is this summary, accumulating in real time.
- Calendar discipline — every Tribunal deadline diarized twice: the date, and fourteen days before it. Adjournment or extension requests go to the Tribunal, in writing, copied to the other side — never only to opposing counsel. One matter on this site — the most consequential in the province — ended because that rule wasn't known.
The reform this page argues for
Information from the public record, not legal advice. See also: Summary procedures · Abandonment.
Common questions
What exactly must I file?
All three: a list of every witness with contact details and what each can speak to; a signed, dated statement of what each would say; and a summary of your allegations tied to evidence and Code grounds.
What if I file some but not all three?
In one Thunder Bay file the applicant filed documents but not the three required items; a second direction followed, it was still incomplete, and the application was dismissed. Reconsideration was denied.
Can I get an extension?
Ask the Tribunal in writing before the deadline, copying the other side. Never send such a request only to opposing counsel.
When should I start preparing?
The week you file. The CAD's demands are predictable years in advance — memories and phone numbers decay, and nothing about early preparation is wasted.
What exactly must I file?
All three: every relevant witness with contact details and what they can speak to; what each would say, signed and dated; and your allegations in order, each tied to evidence and a Code ground.
What if I file some of it?
Partial compliance has ended applications. In one Thunder Bay file the applicant filed documents but not the three required items, received a second direction, remained incomplete, and was dismissed.
Can I get more time?
Ask the Tribunal in writing before the deadline, copied to the other side. Never ask only opposing counsel — one of the most consequential matters in the province ended because that request never reached the Tribunal.
When should I start?
The week you file. Memories and phone numbers decay, and witness statements are strongest when contemporaneous.