In November 2019, Canada settled a class action lawsuit involving sexual misconduct allegations in the military. Under the settlement agreement, claimants had 18 months to submit a claim. This deadline could be extended in two ways. Claimants could submit a claim sixty days after the initial 18-month period if the claims administrator was satisfied that the delay was due to disability or other exceptional circumstances. The settlement agreement also permitted the claims administrator to accept late applications with leave of the Federal Court:
7.08 Late Individual Applications
[…] No Individual Application shall be accepted for substantive review by the Administrator more than 60 days after the Individual Application Deadline without leave of the Court.
The claims administrator received 640 late claims beyond the 20-month window. The plaintiffs brought a motion seeking directions for how claimants could seek leave from the Federal Court to extend the 20-month window under section 7.08 of the settlement agreement.
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