Legal Trends 2016: Litigation & Dispute Resolution

ONE | INCREASING POWER OF ADMINISTRATIVE TRIBUNALS

In 2016, regulated persons in Canada are increasingly likely to find themselves facing prosecution before tribunals, rather than in courts, and facing significant exposure to monetary penalties in those proceedings.

Administrative monetary penalties have become popular with regulators but controversial among regulated persons and legal observers. In recent years, both federal and provincial regulators across a range of regulated fields have been granted new or expanded powers to impose administrative monetary penalties and disgorgement orders against individuals and companies through prosecutions before specialized administrative tribunals. In general, these administrative tribunals afford significantly fewer protections to defendants than courts provide.