Darcy R. Merkur

The plaintiffs, international students, brought a class action against Niagara College alleging misrepresentations regarding the eligibility of its General Arts and Science Program for a three-year Post-Graduation Work Permit.

The parties reached a $3 million settlement.

The court certified the action for settlement purposes, approved the settlement as fair and reasonable, approved class counsel fees of $950,750, and awarded a $10,000 honorarium to each representative plaintiff.

The applicant, a person under disability, sought court approval for a $225,000 all-inclusive tort settlement arising from a motor vehicle accident.

The court approved the settlement amount as being in the applicant's best interests, given the difficulty in proving causation for a subsequent brain aneurysm.

However, the court found the proposed legal fees of $52,585.35 to be excessive given the lack of complexity and time dockets, reducing the approved fees to $40,000 plus HST, thereby increasing the net recovery for the applicant.

The plaintiffs brought a motion for approval of a $10 million class action settlement and class counsel fees regarding an alleged investment leveraging scheme.

While the court found the settlement quantum and proposed counsel fees to be fair and reasonable, it refused to approve the settlement at this time due to a lack of procedural fairness.

Specifically, the settlement administrator failed to implement a transparent challenge process for class members to dispute their individual compensation amounts, as required by the settlement agreement.

The motion was adjourned to allow the parties to implement the required challenge process.