Writing The Writ of Mandamus by ChatGPT and Representing Ourselves

[Rnipking]

To be honest, I do not know. I am still drafting my mandamus, was very busy in past week. Could you please guide me and provide correct procedure/urls I include it in the first post and revise it?

Any update?

 

[katezhu]

Very good information

 

[Jozef001]

(This is not finalized yet, your comments are greatly appreciated, I will update the post based on your feedback to provide a guide for everyone who is willing to do this by themselves.)

Note: I am not a lawyer, and not sure about specific cases. Use this at your own risk!
Generally speaking, I am now going to represent myself and accept the consequences. If you believe this is also something you are looking for, continue reading!

I am starting this thread because I know many of you, similar to me, are thinking about the Writ of Mandamus to finalize the decision about the grant of citizenship. We all know we can go to lawyers and pay the fees to do it, but by using ChatGPT, can't we just do it ourselves?

There are basically 3 steps to mandamus:

1. Letter of Demand (Specific Performance Request)
2. Submitting mandamus application to the court
3. Mandamus Hearing (very unusual that it will go to this step, and in this situation, probably it is better to ask for legal help)

#1 - Letter of Demand (Specific Performance Request)

This is a sample prompt I used from ChatGPT to create the writ of mandamus for me. You should update it based on your own specific situation.

ChatGPT Prompt:


ChatGPT Prompt:



#2 - Submitting mandamus application to the court

The procedure for submission to the court is available here.

For Toronto, as far as I know, it is as follows:

Take the copies of applications for judicial review (the document generated by ChatGPT) and all supporting documents (processing time advertised by IRCC, your application profile, and status) to the Registrar’s Office of the Federal Court of Canada. It is located at 180 Queen Street West, Suite 200, (corner University Ave), 2nd Floor.

1. You will have to pay a $50 filing fee;
2. Once the Registrar gives your applications back with a court number, you have to take them to the Department of Justice.
3. The Department of Justice is located in the Exchange Tower at 130 King Street West (corner York Street). Take the first set of elevators to the 19th Floor;
4. You leave one copy of the leave application at the Department of Justice and you get them to sign on the back of the other copies;
5. Take one of the copies signed by the Department of Justice back to the Registrar’s Office at the Federal Court and leave it with them; and
6. Keep the other copies.

Please reply your feedback and correct me if you find some of the information I provided here not reliable or wrong.

Has anyone done this in Saskatoon, SK?

 

[dpenabill]

Has anyone done this in Saskatoon, SK?

There have been NO reliable reports of anyone successfully pursuing mandamus without a lawyer and relying on AI tools, any AI tools, in ANY province.

In other contexts there are numerous authoritative reports of various individuals using AI tools to generate and compose pleadings and such submitted to Canadian courts which contained more or less made up sources and were subsequently ordered to pay costs and attorneys' fees to the other side. It comes down to this: if you are not sufficiently well-informed to pursue a legal process without the use of AI (that is, if you are not an experienced lawyer) it is highly likely, almost certain, you are not sufficiently informed to pursue that process using AI tools.

Since I posted lengthy comments about this nearly two years ago, it is clear that more and more lawyers are using AI tools to assist their composition of legal documents, including pleadings in pursuit of judicial review. Competent lawyers who do this carefully, staying within the parameters of their experience and expertise, can use such tools to more efficiently do their work. But some of the lawyers using these tools are among those sanctioned for having submitted illegitimate sources (be that sources that do not actually exist or erroneous propositions purportedly derived from legitimate sources), noting that lawyers who stray beyond their actual expertise relying on AI tools can face disciplinary action in addition to sanctions like having to pay another party cost and fees.

Summary: notwithstanding continuing expansion and improvement in AI tools, even whether it is advisable to pursue a writ of mandamus in regards to a citizenship application is still best left to lawyers, let alone actually proceeding with the process.

 

[meyti]

Hello everyone,

I am currently at the leave stage of a mandamus application (Department of Justice has filed a Notice of Appearance and I am waiting for their Respondent’s Record), and I would like to share my experience so far and get some guidance from those who have been through similar situations. Up to this point, I have been self-represented and have prepared everything myself using tools like ChatGPT and Claude, without a lawyer.

I applied for a Canadian eTA in mid-2024. Shortly after applying, IRCC requested additional documents, which I provided in full within the deadline. Since then, there have been no further requests, no procedural fairness letters, and no decision.

After many months of silence, I obtained GCMS notes from IRCC and later CBSA notes. What I found was quite surprising:

• The file was referred for security screening (VIT34) in July 2024
• Internal notes months later still say: “awaiting VIT results”

In short, it looks like the file was sent for screening and then simply never progressed.

Background (for context):

• I originally come from the Middle East and first went to Canada as a student
• During that period, I had a U.S. visa refusal which I did not disclose in a later Canadian application
• That omission led to a misrepresentation finding and a 5-year ban (now long expired)
• Having no other option at the time, I left Canada, later moved to Europe, and obtained European citizenship
• As a European citizen, I now only require an eTA, and in my current application I fully disclosed all past history

After waiting over 20 months, making multiple webform inquiries, having MP follow-ups, and sending a formal demand letter (which received no substantive response), I decided to file a mandamus application in Federal Court.

At this point, I feel I have a strong case on delay, but I’m also concerned about what happens next — especially whether IRCC might issue a refusal just to close the file, and what that would realistically look like.

So I would really appreciate your thoughts on a few questions:

• Based on similar cases, what should I realistically expect at this stage?
• If a refusal comes, is it usually weak and challengeable, or something more serious?
• Do you think it is important to get a lawyer at this stage, or is it still manageable self-represented until after the Respondent’s Record?
• Has anyone had a similar “VIT34 stuck with CBSA” situation, and how did it resolve?

Thanks a lot in advance — I’ve learned a lot from reading others’ experiences here, and I appreciate any guidance you can share.