Community Legal Assistance Society - BC Judicial Review Self-Help Guide

3. Interim Stay

Filing a judicial review does not automatically put the Tribunal decision on hold while you conduct your judicial review. Unless you apply for, and obtain, a court order saying that the Tribunal decision is put on hold, the other parties may be able to enforce the Tribunal decision while your judicial review is pending.

In appropriate cases a judge of the BC Supreme Court may order that the Tribunal decision is on hold temporarily while a judicial review is pending. To do this, the court makes an order called an “interim stay”.

To ask the court for an interim stay of a Tribunal decision you need to:

  • First, file an application for judicial review of the Tribunal decision; and
  • Second, make a court application asking for an interim stay.

It is up to the judge to decide in each case whether or not to order an interim stay. When a judge does decide to order an interim stay of a Tribunal decision, s/he usually specifies that the interim stay is in effect only until a certain specific date or only until the court has dealt with the full application for judicial review.

If the court gives you an interim stay, it will be important to set the hearing of your judicial review for sometime before the interim stays runs out. Otherwise, the Tribunal decision can be enforced when the interim stay runs out.