12 www.lexpert.ca
WHILE THE long life cycle of class actions
makes it difficult to pinpoint trends over the
short term, lawyers say courts increasingly
dismiss cases early.
"Class actions have a long tail on them,"
says Jon Foreman, partner and founder of
Foreman & Company, a London, Ont.-based
firm specializing in class actions. "ey're
actions that take a long time to be completed…
HIGH BAR FOR
CLASS ACTIONS
Feature
CERTIFICATION IS BECOMING MORE DIFFICULT TO CLEAR IN
CANADIAN CLASS ACTIONS AS JUDGES TAKE A HARD LOOK AT
LEGAL ARGUMENTS AND CLAIMS OF HARM
Annual trends are a pretty difficult thing to
put your head around. ere can be trends,
there can be clustering of some new kinds of
cases that are brought within a year, but more
typically, there is a longer horizon on them."
Even considering that, however, judges are
scrutinizing class actions more carefully at
earlier stages in the proceedings, say lawyers.
Courts are weeding out ones with lower
