Jennifer D. Winstanley

The plaintiff brought a motion on consent to certify a multi-jurisdictional class action for settlement purposes and to approve the notices of hearing and dissemination plan.

The action alleged a conspiracy by the defendants to fix the price of gem grade diamonds.

The court granted the motion, finding that the certification criteria under section 5 of the Class Proceedings Act were met and that the proposed notices and dissemination plan were adequate.

In a multi-jurisdictional class action regarding credit card merchant fees, Class Counsel entered into a Fee Sharing Agreement with a competing law firm to resolve a carriage dispute.

The agreement provided the competing firm up to $800,000 from Class Counsel's fees in exchange for staying rival actions.

On a motion to approve a partial settlement and fees, the motion judge reduced Class Counsel's requested fees by 10%, declared the Fee Sharing Agreement unenforceable, and prohibited any payments to the competing firm.

The Court of Appeal upheld the fee reduction and the prohibition on paying the competing firm from the settlement or approved fees, finding the agreement was subject to court approval under the Class Proceedings Act.

However, the Court set aside the declaration that the agreement was entirely unenforceable from any source, as the competing firm was not given notice or an opportunity to make submissions on that specific issue.