Billions of dollars invested, not a penny lost.

Ont CA rules on
class action fees

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HUMAN RIGHTS
Dealing with testators’
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FAMILY JUSTICE
DOWNTURN
GONE FISHING
CRISTIN SCHMITZ OTTAWA

In a judgment of note to civil litigators nationwide, the Ontario Court of Appeal has refused to boost to $20 million from $14.5 million the legal fees of four prominent class action law firms.

On March 28, Justices Russell Juriansz, Michael Moldaver and Robert Armstrong dismissed the appeal of Sutts, Strosberg of Windsor, Ont., and Toronto’s Heenan Blaikie, Paliare Roland and Koskie Minsky from a ruling last year which fixed the firms’ total compensation for a long and hard-fought class action against Money Mart at $12.8 million for fees, $1.1 million for disbursements and $64,304 for GST. Counsel’s basic docketed fees (described as “ substantial” by the appeal court) without any premium for risk or success, totaled nearly $9.8 million.

The 2003 action against
defendants National Money Mart
Co. and its parent Dollar Finan-
cial Group Inc., settled mid-trial
in 2009. The plaintiffs alleged
they were charged a criminal rate
of interest for small loans with a
due date for repayment linked to
their payday.

The appellant law firms argued that the counsel fee approved by the motion judge below was “not fair or reasonable” (particularly when contrasted with the firms’ initial request for $27.5 million).

But the Court of Appeal dis-
agreed, holding that the appel-
lants failed to establish “any
basis” for interfering with
Superior Court Justice Paul Per-
ell’s discretionary determination
that $14.5 million was a fair and
reasonable fee for the work class
counsel “performed with compe-
tence and admirable skill.”
Terrence O’Sullivan of Toronto’s
Lax O’Sullivan Scott Lisus LLP,
who represented the appellants
along with James Renihan, said his
clients are considering whether to
apply for leave to appeal to the
See Money Page 3
Toronto lawyer Julian Falconer said the exclusion of
aboriginals from juries could lead to challenges of jury
verdicts in the wake of an Ontario Court of Appeal decision.
PAUL LAWRENCE FOR THE LAWYERS WEEKLY
See story on page 2
THE LAWYERS WEEKLY Vol. 22, No. 27 NEWS FOR THE LEGAL PROFESSION December 6, 2002 THE LAWYERS WEEKLY
PAGE 5
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Listening to children
in custody disputes
PAGE 15
The state of law firms
after the downturn
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LUIS MILLAN
Ottawa court interpreters looking to unionize VOL. 22, NO. 27 NEWS FOR THE LEGAL PROFESSION DECEMBER 6, 2002

Freelance court interpreters in the Ottawa area, many of whom are currently boycotting new assignments to voice their displeasure over wages that have stagnated over the past decade, are in the midst of holding discussions with the oldest and one of the largest media unions in Canada in a bid to strengthen their hand in negotiations with the Ontario government.

With the backing of the Court
Interpreters Association of Ontario
(CIAO), a loosely organized group
of Ottawa-area freelancers, includ-
Arabic, Portuguese and Spanish
interpreters, pledged more than a
month ago to stop taking new
assignments after negotiations to
increase the hourly rate from the
current $25 an hour to $35 an
hour stalled. “I received a flyer
from a cleaning lady the other day,
and she’s asking $29 an hour — and
she isn’t even accredited,” pointed
out Manuel Costa, one of three
Ottawa freelance interpreters who
launched the boycott.

Attempting to force the government’s hand, in much the same way that freelance court interpreters successfully did in British Columbia nearly three years ago when they obtained a $10 wage hike to $45 per hour, has met with mitigated success.

The tactics are beginning to take
its toll on the administration of
justice yet the Ontario govern-
ment has not budged from its
hard-line stance, said Stella Rah-
man, past president of the CIAO.

Rahman says that the Ministry of the Attorney General of Ontario is hiring unaccredited and unqualified interpreters or contracting out the work at great expense to Toronto-based interpreters. Interpreters travelling over 80 kilometres to a court date can bill $25 per hour for travel time as well as claim meals and mileage.

“The courts are having a very difficult time in filling in all the requests for interpreters, and that’s why many serious criminal charges are being thrown out,” said Rahman, adding that there are rumours that the ministry is compiling a blacklist of freelancers who are refusing to work — a charge the ministry flatly denies.

“Interpreters are crucial for the
justice system to function nor-
mally but when it comes to pay-
ing interpreters they say they
don’t have any money. We have
to push forward. Without a
union, we’re heading nowhere.
As an association, we tried our
best to communicate and negoti-
ate with the ministry but they’ve
said no every time.”
According to Brendan Crawley,
a spokesman with the ministry,
there is “ongoing dialogue”
between the ministry and “many”
interpreter associations and min-
istry freelance interpreters. The
ministry recently publicly stated
that its current rate exceeds that
which is offered by other prov-
inces, and is comparable to that
paid by other agencies such as the
province’s Citizenship and Immi-
gration Ministry and the federal
See Interpreters Page 30
THE LAWYERS WEEKLY
VOL. 22, NO. 27 NEWS FOR THE LEGAL PROFESSION DECEMBER 6, 2002
Dealing with long-term
work absences
PAGE 23
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