Intervener

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In law, an intervener (or intervenor) is a person, group, or other entity that has been granted permission to make submissions to a court or tribunal hearing a particular proceeding.

Interveners are most common in appellate proceedings, but can also appear at other types of legal proceeding such as a trial.

In United States legal parlance, the term "intervener" is rarely used; American lawyers would use the term "amicus curiae" instead.

Canadian courts also use the term "amicus curiae" but in a more limited sense. Generally, in Canada, an amicus curiae is someone who has been specifically commissioned by the court to provide a viewpoint which the court believes is necessary and otherwise lacking. By contrast, an intervener is someone who has applied to the court to be heard on a matter. For example, the Quebec Secession Reference (a case in the Supreme Court of Canada) had one amicus curiae and several interveners.

In general, it is within the discretion of the court to allow or refuse an application to intervene. There are exceptions to this however (for example, under subrule 61(4) of the Rules of the Supreme Court of Canada, if the court has stated a constitutional question then the attorney general of any province or territory, or of the federal government, may intervene "as of right", i.e. without the need to be granted leave to intervene).

Courts will tend to allow an application to intervene if the applicant will provide a different perspective on the issues before the court, without expanding those issues.

Interveners are permitted in criminal matters as well as civil matters. However, courts sometimes express concern in allowing applications for intervention in criminal matters where the applicant will make arguments against the position of the accused. It sometimes is seen as unfair that the accused in a criminal matter be required to meet arguments from sources other than the prosecution.

There are several distinct reasons why someone might wish to intervene is a proceeding:

if the proposed intervener is currently a litigant in a case with legal issues similar or identical to the case at hand;

if the proposed intervener represents a group of people who have a direct concern in the legal issues raised in a case (for example, if the case involves deportation of a particular individual, an application for leave to intervene might be made by an interest group for the rights of refugee claimants);

if the proposed intervener is concerned that the court's decision in a particular case might be so broad as to affect the proposed intervener's interests; in other words it would be an intervention to ensure that the court's ruling does not have "accidental" unintended effects.

It is often said that the role of interveners is to "assist" the court in making a just decision on the dispute at hand. While it is true that judges sometimes do indicate that interveners have been of aid to the court in reaching a decision, the use of the word "assist" can be seen as misleading in that it implies the intervener is acting altruistically. In general, the goal of the intervener is to influence the court in making its decision, not just to "assist" the court.