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©Gregory James, August 2006 Judges on Canada’s Federal Court review the decisions of immigration, visa, and Canada Border Services Agency (CSBA) officers. It also reviews the decisions of members of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. If a Federal Court application is successful, the case is usually sent back to the same department to be re-decided, but by a different decision maker. If the Court decides that there was a mistake the first time, the case has to be considered and decided again. Time limits are very important. If the decision was made at an office inside Canada, the Federal Court application must be filed within 15 days. If the decision was made at an office outside of Canada, the application must be filed within 60 days. If you are considering asking the Federal Court to review a decision, you should contact a lawyer immediately so that the lawyer can start the process. Although you do not have to hire a lawyer, it is strongly recommended that you hire one as the process and the arguments can be very technical in nature. Immigration consultants cannot appear in the Federal Court. The government will be represented by a lawyer who will respond to all of your arguments, saying that the official made a good decision. Ultimately, it will be a judge who decides. The Federal Court process is often referred to as an “appeal”. Formally it is called “judicial review”. There are technical differences between an appeal and judicial review which are important to lawyers, but the general concept is the same. The Federal Court process is in two stages. The first stage (called an “application for leave”) is an application for permission to pursue the appeal. This part of the process is done completely in writing. Once the application for leave has been completed, the file is sent to a judge who reviews the written material and decides whether or not to grant “leave” (permission) to continue. The Court has limited resources, and so only wants to hear cases that it considers serious, and not a waste of the Court’s time. Therefore, the judge will grant leave only if the judge agrees that the application sets out an arguable case or a serious issue. If the judge denies leave, the Federal Court application is finished. If the judge grants leave, the application will continue to the second stage. A hearing will be scheduled. There are no witnesses at these hearings, only the two lawyers speak to the judge. Therefore the client does not need to be present, although these hearings are generally open to the public. After this hearing the judge will decide whether or not to send the case back to be reconsidered and decided by a different decision-maker.
IN BRIEF Consumer protection Most lawyers require that the receive money before they do the work. The reason for this is quite simple. It makes it easier for them to be paid. Unfortunately, otherwise there are too many clients who refuse to pay after the work is done. Because the product lawyers sell are services rather than goods, the lawyer cannot simply go and seize the product back if they are not paid. But it is important to know that lawyers are required to place the money they receive into a separate “trust account” at their bank. And they have to leave the money in the trust account until they send the client a bill for services provided. Lawyers are not allowed to send a bill for services until after the services are delivered. This means they cannot use the client’s money until after they have done the work. Lawyers who use their client’s money before they work on the file can lose their licenses to practice law. This is a very important control over lawyers. It is designed to protect the client. It gives the lawyer an incentive to do the work as quickly as possible (which is good for the client) and it also means that if the lawyer has not done the work the money is available for the client to get a refund. Some non-lawyers take money received from a client and spend it right away on their own expenses. That means that the money is gone even before the work is done. In such cases there is no more incentive for the work to get done. The incentive is to go out and get more clients instead of working for the clients who have already given money. Make sure that anyone you might hire to assist you has a trust account and that they will not use the funds you give them until after they have done the work.
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