Peter Simm’s Record of Success with Judicial Review

As the Supreme Court of Canada has noted, “The term ‘judicial review’ embraces review of administrative decisions by way of both application for judicial review and statutory rights of appeal.”

Peter Simm won the statutory appeal in Richmond as co-counsel for the appellant.

The Ontario Divisional Court grants only 14.7% of applications for judicial review. In Megens and in Poulton,  Simm won applications for judicial review as sole counsel and lead counsel, respectively, for the successful applicants. Victory in Megens was achieved in an especially challenging context: the tribunal’s decisions had been driven by findings of fact and credibility, and the standard of review was patent unreasonableness.

In Symtron (No. 1), Simm wrote the winning Factums for the Respondents on two JR applications, which were heard jointly in the Federal Court of Appeal. The losing applicant in both was the Attorney General of Canada.

In McKay-Clements, Simm was sole counsel for the successful JR Respondents (Moving Parties), where he successfully brought a motion to quash the application.

Simm’s administrative law cases have been reported in 22 hardcover law reports, and are cited in 12 leading administrative law textbooks, including a top British textbook which rarely cites Canadian cases (De Smith’s Judicial Review, 8th ed., 2018).

Simm’s JR cases have also been cited in 76 appellate court decisions, including by the Supreme Court of Canada and the Irish High Court.