To begin a judicial review, you need to file court documents with the BC Supreme Court, and provide filed copies of these documents to other parties.
A petition is the court form that starts your judicial review. It sets out what you are asking the court to do, why you are asking the court to do it, and the facts and evidence that form the basis for your judicial review.
Your petition will start with a heading on the first page. This heading is called the “style of proceeding” or “style of cause” and it gives basic information about the case: what court the case is filed in; what registry it is filed in; the court file number; and the parties to the judicial review. The “parties” are usually all the people, organizations, or companies that are involved in the dispute that led to the judicial review. For example, if you made a human rights complaint about your employer and you would like to challenge the decision of the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal, the parties in the judicial review will be you, your employer, and the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal.
Once you draft the style of proceeding you will use it on the first page of every court document you draft.
The petition will set out 4 things:
- The order that you are seeking from the court;
- The facts that this petition is based on;
- The legal basis that the petition will rely on in support of the orders; and
- The material to be relied on.
This is a blank petition for judicial review that you can download and fill in: Blank Petition for Judicial Review
This is an example petition for judicial review that you can use as a guide: Example Petition for Judicial Review