Introduction

AuthorHarvey T. Strosberg, Q.C.
Pages1-2
1
INTRODUCTION
Harvey T. Strosberg, Q.C.
In this issue of the Canadian Class Action Review, practitioners and law-
yers from across Canada offer their expertise in class actions on a wide
range of subjects, including the courts’ approach to merits in the certifica-
tion analysis; the approval of class counsel fees; gains-based claims and
deterrence; multiple defendant class actions; the ethics of group litiga-
tion; cross-border collaboration by class counsel in multinational class
actions; and the application of cy-près doctrine to class actions.
In the first essay in this collection, Jessica Kimmel weighs in on the
issue of the assessment of the merits at the certification stage. Beginning
with Hollick v. Toronto (City), she takes an in-depth look at recent case
law in order to determine whether the certification motion is, in fact, an
analysis of the merits.
Benjamin Alarie analyzes a sample of twenty-seven Ontario class
action decisions, focusing on the courts’ approach to the approval of class
counsel fees. He argues that a percentage contingency fee for compensat-
ing class counsel would be superior to the lodestar method generally
favoured by the courts in the decisions that he examines.
Taking issue with the proposition that class proceeding legislation
does not alter the substantive law, in their article John Chapman and Patti
Shedden examine the interaction between class proceedings and remedies
law. They outline some of the trends emerging in class proceedings with
a focus on remedial claims and provide an analysis of the practical chal-
lenges courts face in applying deterrence principles.
Marc-André Grou’s article analyzes the Quebec Court of Appeal’s
decision in Bouchard v. Agropur Coopérative that a representative plain-
tiff cannot institute a class action against multiple defendants in the
absence of a personal claim against each of the defendants. He compares
the decision in Agropur, and the judgments that have followed, with the
approaches taken in the U.S. and other Canadian jurisdictions.

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