Bruce Lemer has been plaintiff counsel in several significant class actions, including the largest products liability class action in Canadian history, the 1986-1990 Hepatitis C class action. He has successfully represented plaintiffs in consumer class actions against investment advisers/stock brokers over wrongfully taken commissions foreign exchange commissions.  Bruce Lemer has the specialized knowledge, experience and resources necessary to prevail over a large corporation.

The class action is a relatively new tool that alters the balance of power between plaintiffs and defendants by allowing people to band together in one single case. This makes it easier to challenge large corporate defendants. The final decision of the court will bind each of the class members, subject to each member’s right to opt out. Moreover, in most situations, individual plaintiffs involved in a class action would have never brought such a suit, since the recovery of damages would be insufficient to offset the significant legal costs.

Some examples of the type of claims that may qualify for a class action lawsuit include defective products, securities, nuisance, environment cases, false advertising and shoddy products and negligence.

One or more individuals (“representative plaintiffs”) represent the rest of the class. A class member does not have to be a named plaintiff to benefit from a successful class action. Because  the rest of the class does not have a day to day say in how the class action is run the court supervises and must approve all steps in the action, including any settlement and amount of legal fees.

There are numerous advantages to initiating a class action or participating as a class member. For one, there is no cost to the plaintiff, since your Canadian class action lawyer only gets paid a percentage of the fees awarded if the case is successfully litigated.

Contact Bruce Lemer for a free consultation.

April 5, 2012