“Ms. Girao also seeks a fee allowance as a self-represented person, for herself and her husband, in the amount of nearly $800,000, calculated at $150 per hour, including their time in court at the trial and on the hearing of the appeal.
The principles for awarding fee allowances to self-represented litigants were set out by Rouleau J.A. in Benarroch v. Fred Tayar & Associates P.C., 2019 ONCA 228, following Fong v. Chan (1999), 1999 CanLII 2052 (ON CA), 46 O.R. (3d) 330, [1999] O.J. No. 4600 (Ont. C.A.), per Sharpe J.A. At para. 26 of Fong, Sharpe J.A. set out two conditions that must be met if a self-represented litigant is to be awarded a fee allowance. Fees should only be awarded to those lay litigants who can demonstrate that they:
a) devoted time and effort to do the work ordinarily done by a lawyerretained to conduct the litigation; and
b) as a result, incurred an opportunity cost by foregoing remunerative activity.”