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.

This website, jrbc.ca or judicialreviewbc.ca, is produced for educational purposes only. This website has information on common situations, but does not cover all possible situations. You should not rely on this website as legal advice. If you have a legal problem, you should get legal advice on your particular situation.

This website may contain inaccurate or misleading information. The law, including statutes, regulations, court rules, court practices, and court precedents can change without warning and those changes may not be reflected in this website. The Community Legal Assistance Society, its funders, its authors, its contributors, its editors, and the distributors of this website are not responsible for ensuring this website is up-to-date, ensuring the completeness or accuracy of the information contained in this website, or any form of damages or monetary loss caused by or attributed to the use of this website, including but not limited to claims based on negligence or breach of contract.

Site by the Community Legal Assistance Society. Content available under Creative Commons CC BY-NC licence. This guide is made possible by funding from the British Columbia Ministry of Justice and the Law Foundation of British Columbia. This guide was originally produced by David Mossop, Q.C.
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