What rights does a self-represented litigant have in an Ontario Superior Court lawsuit?

An individual has the right to represent themselves in an Ontario Superior Court civil lawsuit, whether as a plaintiff or a defendant, without needing to hire a lawyer. A self-represented litigant has essentially the same procedural rights as anyone else: the right to file pleadings, receive proper notice of steps taken against them, examine and be examined during discovery, present evidence at trial, cross-examine witnesses, and make legal arguments to the court. Courts generally recognize that going through a lawsuit without legal training is genuinely difficult, and judges will often take reasonable steps to explain process, such as clarifying what a hearing involves procedurally, without crossing into giving legal advice or favouring one side.

What self-representation doesn't change is the substance of the law that applies to the case: the same rules of evidence, procedure, and legal tests apply whether or not you have a lawyer, and a judge can't lower the bar for proving a claim or defence just because a party is unrepresented. This combination — real procedural rights plus some practical accommodation, but no relaxation of the underlying law — is often where self-represented litigants find the experience hardest, since good intentions don't substitute for understanding what the law actually requires.