Class Actions

Class actions present unique challenges to businesses, governments and other organizations operating in an increasingly litigious environment. We have both the strategic outlook and technical know-how required to successfully defend complex class proceedings.

Our litigators have extensive experience acting for national and international clients, as well as numerous statutory entities, in complex multi-party, representative and mass-complaint actions under class proceedings legislation, and have been lead counsel in seminal class action jurisprudence.

Our experience includes claims related to products liability, in such specialized areas as pharmaceuticals and medical devices and biotechnology, as well as in many other fields including mass torts, securities, and other investors’ claims, transportation, pensions and commercial claims.

We are routinely retained by national and international clients as well as law firms in other jurisdictions to provide advice on class actions in Western Canada, and our lawyers are leading educators on the subject, regularly writing on class actions and presenting at conferences across Canada.

• Frey et al. v. BCE Inc. et al., 2013 SKCA 26, 2011 SKCA 136, aff’g 2009 SKQB 165, 2007 SKQB 328. (Related proceedings Drover et al. v. BCE Inc., 2012 BCSC 50), an ongoing multi-billion dollar class action against various wireless service providers related to “system access fees” charged by those providers.
•  Jackson v. Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway, 2012 ABQB 652 (leave to appeal to SCC dismissed May 29, 2014, SCC No. 35730), successfully represented the defendant railways in the dismissal of an application for certification of a class action seeking hundreds of millions of dollars as a result of the alleged overcharging for carriage of grain in Western Canada and the granting of an application for summary judgment in favour of the defendant railways.
• Wuttunee v. Merck Frosst Canada Ltd., 2007 SKQB 29, 2009 SKCA 43, 2009 CanLII 57570 (S.C.C.), quashing certification of an action dealing with the prescription drug Vioxx; leave to appeal to Supreme Court of Canada denied.
•  Brooks et al. v. Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, 2007 SKQB 247, representing the defendant in an action denying certification of a proposed class action seeking damages arising from a train derailment.
•  Hoffman et al. v. Monsanto Canada Inc. and Bayer CropScience Inc., 2007 SKCA 47, successfully opposing certification of a class action arising from the introduction of genetically modified canola.