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LEGAL REPORT: LITIGATION "I really believe it has become an impediment to justice. National classes make a lot of sense. We don't want to have 10 trials." — BONNIE TOUGH, TOUGH AND PODREBARAC LLP cal about the viability of national class actions given the constitutional questions that inevitably arise whenever jurisdic- tional battles come up. Good results have come in cases where the lawyers involved have agreed to put aside their carriage disputes, but as Audren points out, that scenario happens most often when the parties reach a settlement. At the same time, she notes that different consumer protection laws in each prov- ince can make it impractical to have one court handle a national class action over product liability. Tough, though, argues it is possible to overcome that conundrum by creating different subclasses of residents from each affected province who would try to prove the product in question vio- lated their own jurisdiction's laws. But ultimately, she feels the issue is one the profession has to tackle in order to come up with a system for resolving carriage disputes. "I think the solution has to be a bench and bar committee that sets protocols that the courts agree to follow," she says, noting she has seen cases in the past, such as the Hepatitis C actions in the 1990s, where the courts have agreed to co-ordinate amongst themselves. In that instance, judges in three provinces decided a particular order wouldn't be valid until the other two courts followed suit, she points out. In the meantime, the Lépine deci- sion does add judicial weight in a few areas. First, it emphasizes the impor- tance of clarity in drafting class action notices, says Audren. At the same time, Unterberg argues, it will put an end to litigants — who in his view are usually defendants — from shopping for the most favourable jurisdiction to handle a case since "the guy who files first will have priority." Now, he's back to litigating against Canada Post, an effort in which he vows to seek "a hell of a lot more" for the esti- mated 50,000 Quebec claimants than those who fell under the Ontario settle- ment got. He's still crunching the num- bers but argues that instead of three months, the company should compen- sate customers for the lifetime's worth of Internet service they say they were promised. "They tried to unilaterally cancel a contract. You can't do that." PROFESSIONAL DIRECTORY Supreme Court of Canada Counsel and Agency Services Henry S. Brown, Q.C. Martin W. Mason Brian A. Crane, Q.C. Graham Ragan Guy Régimbald Eduard J. Van Bemmel, Legal Assistant 2600 - 160 Elgin Street, Ottawa, ON K1P 1C3 Tel: (613) 786-0139 Montréal Ottawa || Kanata | gowlings.com Toronto | Hamilton | Waterloo Region | | | Calgary Vancouver Moscow | London ntitled-5 1 4/6/09 4:20:13 PM ntitled-5 1 12/11/08 3:24:59 PM cineplex.com/corporatesales 1-800-313-4461 corporatesales@cineplex.com www. C ANADIAN Law ye rmag.com JULY 2009 49