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Service Standards

Important Notice

April 14, 2023

The Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (HRTO) is experiencing delays in processing applications.

The HRTO is actively working to improve its service timelines and reduce the accumulation of applications, including by reallocating resources to prioritize application processing and event scheduling. During this time, you may experience a delay in receiving a response to email inquiries.

To assist us in reducing service delays, parties are encouraged to do the following:

  • Review the Applicant’s or Respondent’s guide prior to submitting a completed application or response.
  • Where possible, limit email inquires and hearing-related requests. The HRTO will notify all parties once an application has been processed or an event has been scheduled. Hearing-related issues can be addressed when the file is approaching a hearing.
  • When submitting electronic documents and submissions to the HRTO, ensure to include the file number and purpose of the email (i.e. submissions) in the subject line and copy all parties.

Service excellence is a priority for the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario. Our service standards keep us focused on providing fair, effective, and timely dispute resolution. These are the service standards for the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario:

  • The first mediation date offered to parties will be scheduled to take place within 150 calendar days from the date the parties agree to mediation.
  • The first hearing date will be offered to parties will be within 180 calendar days from the date the application is ready to proceed to hearing.
  • Decisions for hearings which take 3 days or less will be issued within 90 calendar days.
  • Decisions for hearings which take longer than 3 days will be issued within 180 calendar days.

We expect to meet these standards 80% of the time.