Articles 2025

In Sanis Health, 2024 SCC 40, the Supreme Court affirmed the constitutionality of B.C.’s “multi-Crown class action” legislation, giving the green light to the opioid health care cost recovery lawsuit brought by B.C. on behalf of all provinces, territories, and the federal government. Even more importantly, the Supreme Court commented for the first time on the validity of the national class actions model, and delivered a ringing endorsement of the status quo.

The Superior Court of Justice partially certified a class action involving allegations that certain diesel vehicles were equipped with defeat devices in Mackinnon v. Volkswagen Group Canada Inc., 2024 ONSC 4988. This decision emphasizes the long-term impact of early litigation strategies. The court clarified the scope of a partial rehearing of certification and further confirmed that certification requires a plausible damages methodology, not definitive proof.

This article considers the state of the law on aggregate damages awards, comparing two recent decisions with opposite results: Spina v. Shoppers Drug Mart Inc., 2024 ONCA 642, and Granger v. Ontario, 2024 ONSC 6503.

Are you a Solo, Small Firm or a General Practitioner and thinking of advertising? Then this article gives you significant insights before you dive into the whole new world of advertising for your firm.

Following are our summaries of the civil decisions of the Court of Appeal for Ontario for the week of December 16, 2024.

Read about the value of picking your battles and focusing on your strong points during mediation through the lens of termination clauses.

Following are our summaries of the civil decisions of the Court of Appeal for Ontario for the week of December 9, 2024.

Community benefits charges (“CBC”) are a new funding tool authorized under s. 37 of Ontario’s Planning Act (the “Act”) that allow municipalities to impose a charge against higher density development to pay for capital costs related to developments and redevelopments. CBCs can only be levied against mid- to high-density buildings that are five or more storeys and contain 10 or more residential units.

This article summarizes Fehr v. Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada, 2024 ONCA 847, in which the Ontario Court of Appeal upheld the dismissal of a motion to add a new common issue in a class action after certification. The court ruled the claim for "investment spread" increases was statute-barred because it was discoverable in 2016 when relevant documents were disclosed by the defendant, emphasizing that the knowledge of class counsel could be imputed to the entire class.