The Law Commission of Ontario Launches Consultation Paper entitled Class Actions : Objectives, Experience, and Reforms

Source : Press Release, LAW COMMISSION OF ONTARIO, MARCH 9 2018

The Law Commission of Ontario (LCO) today releases a Consultation Paper and launches province-wide consultations for its Class Actions: Objectives, Experience, and Reforms project. Find it HERE. 

The LCO review is the most comprehensive assessment of Ontario’s Class Proceedings Act since it came into force more than 25 years.  Since that time, class action litigation has grown dramatically in volume, complexity and impact in Ontario and across Canada.  The LCO’s project will:

• Analyze the experience with class actions in Ontario; and,
• Provide an independent, principled and practical analysis of class actions from the perspective of access to justice, judicial economy, and behaviour modification.

The Consultation Paper seeks advice from a broad range Ontarians, including class members, the legal profession, legal organizations, governments, public and private organizations, academics and any others who have an interest in class actions.  Formal public consultations conclude in mid-May.  The project expects to release its final report in late 2018.

Professor Bruce Elman, Chair of Law Commission of Ontario, states: “Class action litigation has grown dramatically in volume, complexity and impact since the enactment of Ontario’s Class Proceedings Act in 1993.  The LCO project will independently assess whether Ontario’s legislation needs to be updated in light of that experience.”

Prof. Catherine Piché acts as co-researcher with Prof. Jasminka Kalajdzic from Windsor U. in this project initiated by the Law Commission of Ontario with the assistance of Class Action Lab student William Plante-Bischoff.

The LCO is Ontario’s leading law reform agency.  The LCO provides independent, balanced and authoritative advice on some of Ontario’s most complex and far-reaching legal policy issues.  The LCO is funded by the Law Foundation of Ontario, the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General, Osgoode Hall Law School, the Law Society of Ontario, and York University.  The LCO is also supported by Ontario’s law schools. The LCO is located at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University.

More information about the project and the LCO is available on the LCO’s website at www.lco-cdo.org.

This content has been updated on March 15, 2018 at 9:16 am.