It Hasn't Been Easy

Even if I've had some positive experiences since my landlord/tenant matter happened, I don't mean to say it's been easy!  It sure hasn't been--and that's an understatement!  I would've needed to have not just a lawyer at my hearing but one who was knowledgeable about human rights.  It certainly would've helped!  But I didn't know how to find one at the time and also I was on a low income.  [Sometimes the lawyers accept Legal Aid and sometimes not.]  It had been announced in the news in 1998 that clients didn't need to have lawyers to go before the Ontario Rental Housing Tribunal; and I had thought that for once I'd try to do something myself.  I had been on social assistance for a time and it seemed like I'd already had help from a lot of places.  But I sought whatever free legal advice was available outside of the hearings. And I did receive some good counsel [at different times] but it was a very complicated case--in spite of the fact that the Ontario Rental Housing Tribunal had a simplified system.  [The Ontario Human Rights Commission would've taken a number of years to handle my case.]  I had no human rights advice until some time after my hearing had been held.