If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It; If You’re Not Sure, Measure Again: Strengthening the Imperfect Mechanics of Class Authorization

• Author: Patrick Visintini
• Pages: 115-125

115

If it Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix it; if You’re Not Sure,

Measure Again: Strengthening the Imperfect

Mechanics of Class Authorization

Patrick Visintini

AbstrAct: In this short piece, the author responds (belatedly) to a judicial

call for reform to the class authorization process in Quebec. As long as

authorization continues to be required, any teeth added to the process

will only serve to reduce incentives to bring class actions and increase

upfront costs without necessarily cutting back on delays. On the other

hand, removing authorization as a compulsory step could reduce the need

for duplicative procedures and lighten the load on the judiciary without

compromising the viability of class actions as a means of redress. Most

importantly, though, legislative reforms need to be guided not only by

judicial intuition, but also by considerably more empirical analysis of the

existing regime than is currently available. How else can we adequately

predict and target their outcomes?

CCAR 15-2.indb 115 3/2/2020 3:50:30 PM