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
One paragraph in the Tribunal's acknowledgment letter, at filing: "At a later stage you will be required to file a witness list, witness statements, and a case summary by a fixed deadline; failure may result in dismissal. You may begin preparing these now." Cost: nil. The absence of that paragraph is a choice, and this page measures its price in dismissed cases.
Information from the public record, not legal advice. See also: Summary procedures · Abandonment.