Practice direction: How to summons a witness

A summons is a legal document that orders a person to attend a Tribunal hearing. A summons can also require a witness to bring specified documents or things to the hearing.

Each party is responsible for making sure their witnesses come to the hearing on the date and time they are required to testify. The Tribunal is not responsible for ensuring that witnesses attend the hearing.

If you are concerned a witness may not come to the hearing or the witness needs a summons to be absent from work, school or another responsibility, ask the Tribunal for a summons.

A witness can agree to come to the hearing without being summonsed. However, if a witness who was not summonsed fails to attend, the hearing will proceed.

The Tribunal Member will discuss what witnesses you may need and explain the procedure for summoning witnesses at a Case Management Conference Call. The Member will help plan when the witness needs to attend the hearing.

Ask for a summons as soon as possible after the hearing is scheduled, but no later than 30 days before the first day of hearing. The Tribunal may accept a late request if there are special circumstances.

Visit our Forms page to obtain the Request for Summons form.

If you want the witness to bring documents or physical things to the hearing, you must provide a list of everything you want on the Request for Summons form.

The Tribunal does not grant every request for a summons. If there is a question about whether the witness has evidence relevant to the hearing or the summons is being sought for an improper purpose, the request may be dealt with at a Case Management Conference Call.

Serve the summons on the witness by:

• serving it in person.
• hiring someone to serve it (sometimes called a process server).
• having another adult serve it in person.

Be prepared to prove the summons was served correctly. If you cannot prove this and the witness does not appear, the hearing may proceed without hearing the witness’s evidence.

The summons must be served as soon as possible. Ideally, the summons should be served no later than 30 days before the hearing begins or on the day the witness is required to come to the hearing to testify.

To be an enforceable summons the witness must be paid the correct attendance fee and allowances. This includes a basic travel allowance when attending an in-person hearing or when required to travel to participate in an electronic hearing. It may also include an allowance for overnight stays and meals. The payments are the same as payments to witnesses appearing before the Federal Court and are found here: Federal Courts Rules, Tariff A, section 3.

Make a record of when, where and how the summons was served. If you did not serve it yourself, the person who did serve it must confirm when, where and how they served it and explain how they know it was given to the witness (for example, the process server asked for identification). Make a record of how you calculated and paid the required attendance fee and allowances.

The summons is an order of the Tribunal. If the witness does not come to the hearing after being properly served, they may be subject to punishment by the Federal Court.

Tell the Registry Officer as soon as possible if a witness requires any alternative arrangements or accommodation based on a Canadian Human Rights Act protected ground to testify. Include this information on the Request for Summons form where possible.

Questions? Contact the Registry.