3. Present your evidence
Question & Answer
I’m taking my landlord to the LTB. How do I present my case?After your opening statement, the should ask you to present your .
Your evidence includes what your witnesses say, including yourself. It also includes any documents, photos or recordings that help you prove your case. Documents can include receipts, inspection reports, or emails between you and your landlord.
Exhibits
Before a document, photo, or recording can be used as evidence at a hearing, someone must tell the who made it and what it is. This can be you, your landlord, or another witness. If the LTB accepts it as evidence, it's called an “exhibit” and it becomes part of the official record of the hearing. The LTB member can then use it to help them make their decision.
You must show the LTB member each document at your hearing. It's not enough to have sent them a document beforehand. Anything you sent the LTB but forget to show the member at the hearing won't be used as evidence.
Direct examination
You can bring witnesses to help support your case.
If you have a witness who is not listed as a party on your , they must be in a separate room from you until you ask them to speak. If your hearing is remote, the witness should also not be in the virtual hearing room until it is their turn to give evidence. This is because the LTB doesn't allow witnesses to hear what is happening in the case before they speak.
You decide the order in which your witnesses speak. All witnesses must swear, affirm, or promise to tell the truth.
You must ask each witness questions to get answers that support your case. This is called “examination-in-chief” or “”.
You can't ask questions in a way that tells the witness what you want them to say. These kinds of questions are called leading questions.
Example:
- Leading question: “The oven was broken, wasn't it?”
- Non-leading question: “What was the condition of the oven when you inspected it?”
Leading questions are not allowed in direct examination. To avoid leading questions, ask questions that start with who, what, where, when, why, how, or please describe.
You can also be a witness yourself. If you don't have a lawyer or other representative to ask you questions, just tell your story as simply as you can. The LTB member may ask you questions.
Cross-examination
When you finish questioning each of your witnesses, your landlord can then cross-examine them by asking questions as well.
Leading questions are allowed during cross-examination. The purpose of cross-examination is to test how true and reliable the witness' answers are.
If you're a witness at your own hearing, your landlord can cross-examine you too.
Re-examination
During re-examination, you can ask your witnesses more questions if you need to make clear anything that came up during the cross-examination. But you can't raise any new issues or ask any questions you forgot in your direct examination.
Objections
When your landlord is questioning a witness, you can object to questions being asked or to documents being offered as exhibits. To “object” means that you disagree. You should only object to something if you can show there is a reason why the LTB member shouldn't hear the evidence.
For example, if the question or evidence has nothing to do with the issues the member must decide, you can object by saying it's not relevant. You can't object just because you think what the witness is saying is not true.
You can also object if you think your landlord is bullying your witness, harassing them, or being too aggressive.
You can object by saying “objection” and then say the reason why. You should object as soon as you notice a problem. You don't have to wait for the landlord to finish questioning the witness or finish showing the evidence. You can interrupt the landlord to object.
New issues
Usually, the LTB member will not let you raise any issues at the hearing that you did not list on your application form. But the LTB might allow you to raise a new issue if it's related to your application and it came up after you filed your application.
Your landlord
When you're finished presenting your evidence, the LTB member will ask your landlord to present their evidence.
You're allowed to cross-examine your landlord and their witnesses. The LTB member might also ask your landlord or their witnesses some questions.
