Who Can Be A Representative Plaintiff Under Ontario's 'Class Proceedings Act, 1992'?
Mondaq Business Briefing › Canada Law Articles in English (2012)
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Who Can Be A Representative Plaintiff Under Ontario's 'Class Proceedings Act, 1992'?
I. INTRODUCTION
Despite the voluminous case law on certification of class actions under the Ontario Class Proceedings Act, 1992 ("CPA")1, surprisingly little of it considers the qualities of an appropriate representative plaintiff. What emerges clearly, however, is that the threshold for appointing a suitable class representative has been set fairly low as courts apply the criteria listed in s. 5(1)(e) of the CPA: there is a representative plaintiff who would fairly and adequately represent the interests of the class; the representative plaintiff has produced a plan for the proceeding that sets out a workable method of advancing the proceeding on behalf of the class and of notifying class members of the proceeding; and the representative plaintiff does not have, on the common issues for the class, an interest in conflict with the interests of the other class members. It appears that, in most cases, the proposed representative plaintiff will be subject to little scrutiny and certification will be granted and the proposed representative plaintiff appointed so long as the remaining four certification criteria set out in s. 5(1) of the CPA are met.2 The decision of the Supreme Court of Canada in Western Canadian Shopping Centres Inc. v. Dutton3 (along with two other Supreme Court of Canada decisions on class actions, referred collectively to as the "class actions trilogy", in which that Court recognized class actions even in jurisdictions without legislation governing class actions4) articulated the following three factors to be considered to ensure that the proposed representative plaintiff will "adequately represent the class" and "vigorously and capably prosecute the int...See the full content of this document
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