Former Scarborough councillor Jim Karygiannis will have his day in court on Nov. 21 in a bid to get his council seat back.

Ontario Superior Court Justice Todd Archibald agreed on Friday morning that the matter should be heard on an urgent basis ahead of the upcoming council meeting on Nov. 26 when the city clerk is expected to report to council on the Ward 22 vacancy.

Archibald told the lawyers present in the civil practice courtroom on University Avenue where hearings are scheduled that the courts were booked up over the next two weeks, but that they would find space to hear the Karygiannis matter.

“We will get you on because of the importance to everyone, to the city and to the individual, obviously,” Archibald said.

The judge also granted elector Adam Chaleff intervener status in the matter, meaning his lawyer, Stephen Aylward, can make legal arguments regarding Karygiannis’s request to be returned to office.

Aylward told the court it was his understanding that the city didn’t intend to take any position on the merits of Karygiannis’s application — which would mean they would largely be a neutral party.

A lawyer for the city told the judge they did not plan to cross-examine Karygiannis.

On Nov. 6, city clerk Ulli Watkiss notified Karygiannis that he had automatically forfeited his office for overspending a 2018 campaign limit, as shown in a financial filing he made this October.

That filing showed Karygiannis exceeded the limit by nearly $26,000, largely stemming from a $27,000 dinner he held two months after the election.

That dinner was originally listed in a financial statement filed by Karygiannis as a fundraiser, which is not subject to the limit.

In June of this year, Chaleff filed a successful request to the city-appointed compliance audit committee to review Karygiannis’s extraordinary campaign finances, including the dinner, as first highlighted in reporting by Toronto.com’s David Nickle.

Karygiannis was then allowed to reopen his campaign in order to continue raising funds to cover the costs of his legal bills. That required him to file a secondary statement with the city’s elections office. In that supplementary statement, the dinner was moved under a category for parties and appreciation, which is subject to a strict limit. For 2018, that limit for Ward 22 candidates was $6,120.80.

In his application filed with the court Nov. 12, Karygiannis claims the modifications to his financial filings were made “inadvertently” by his forensic accountant.

In explaining to court staff why the matter was urgent on Friday morning, Karygiannis’s lawyer Sean Dewart said simply: “There’s a city councillor who threw himself off council by accident.”

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The hearing is scheduled to take place over two hours with a judgment expected ahead of the council meeting later this month.

The clerk is obligated to notify council about the vacancy and council must vote to declare the office vacant. Once that happens, they have 60 days to either call a byelection or appoint someone to the seat.