As a litigator, I review (and occasionally participate in) a substantial number of past court decisions from the Ontario Superior Court on a daily basis. These decisions are assigned numbers based on when they are issued, such as ONSC 1, ONSC 2, and so on throughout the year, with the numbering restarting at 1 in the new year.
While deciding what to write for this blog, I considered examining the first reported decision from the Ontario Superior Court of 2025. However, ONSC 1 turned out to be unsuitable for a blog post. Instead, I want to highlight some key legal principles concerning proper questions asked during discoveries and cross-examinations based on ONSC 2, a decision by Justice Bordin in Second Real Properties Limited v. S&P Data Corporation.
Proper Questions During Examinations
Justice Bordin explained that at its core, determining whether a question is appropriate revolves around relevance.
Relevance refers to evidence’s ability to logically support a particular fact’s truth. To assess whether evidence is relevant, a judge must decide if, based on common sense and logic, the existence of a specific fact makes it more likely that another fact exists.
In simpler terms, if the question asked has the potential to produce an answer that a judge can use to resolve a disputed issue, then the question is considered relevant.
Lawyers Expertise
If a question is deemed irrelevant, the lawyer may refuse to answer it, and the issue of relevance can be debated in a motion before the court.
Lawyers ask questions to the other side during examinations to gather information that could support their client’s case. Determining which questions to answer and which ones to refuse needs to be done in the span of a few seconds after the question is asked. Accordingly, it is crucial to have a skilled lawyer guiding you through the examination process, no matter the type of legal proceeding you are involved in.
This is vital not only for the comfort of the client answering the questions but also for ensuring irrelevant questions don’t get answered and providing the opposing side with additional unrequired information during the examination.
If you have any questions about examinations or any other stage of a legal proceeding, feel free to contact anyone from our amazing team at Andriessen and Associates.
Ariel Dorfman, Associate Lawyer