Foreword

• Pages: XV-XVI
• Author: Janet Walker,Lorne Sossin,Erik S. Knutsen,Gerard J. Kennedy

FOREWORD

While the essentials of our civil procedure regime remain the same,

there have been many signicant changes since the rst edition of this

book was published in 2010. This new edition of Civil Litigation offers

a readable and perceptive asses sment of those developments and of the

subject as a whole. The original authors, Justice Lorne Sossin and Pro-

fessor Janet Walker, have added Professors Gerard J. Kennedy and Erik

Knutsen to the team to create a new and expanded edition of this  ne

text that represents a n important contribution to the study of a vit ally

important but often neglected subject.

The authors examine the response of our civil justice regime to the

challenge of delivering timely and cost-effective justice. The book in-

cludes an up-to-date account of civil justice reform i nitiatives and con-

siders the operation and impact of case management procedures and

the stronger emphasis on judicial management of the litigation process

that has become an import ant feature of modern civil procedure. The

growing use of summ ary procedures to expedite litigation is carefully

examined.

Since the rst edition, clas s actions have grown in number and sig-

nicance, and this edition includes a new chapter on the class act ions

process. Class actions aim to provide access to justice for claims that

are uneconomic to pursue individually, but class actions are procedur-

ally complex. As the authors explai n, they give rise to difcult issues at

almost every stage of the litigation proces s.

xv