The Lawyers Weekly - August 12, 2011

Billions of dollars invested, not a penny lost.

THOMAS CLARIDGE

The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) has dealt a death blow to the tobacco industry’s hope that Canadian taxpayers will share their liability to potential multi-billion-dollar damage awards from two lawsuits alleging failure to warn smokers about the health risks they faced.

In R. v. Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd., the B.C. government is seeking to recover the costs it encountered for medical treatment of individuals who became ill from smoking. In Knight v. Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd., the plaintiffs are smokers who purchased “light” or “mild” cigarettes in the mistaken belief they were not as harmful as regular cigarettes.

In both cases, the defendant tobacco companies issued third-party notices to the government of Canada alleging that if they were held liable they were entitled to compensation from the government for negligent misrepresentation, negligent design and failure to warn, as well as equity.

Although the third-party notices
were struck by a motions judge,
the B.C. Court of Appeal held that
the negligent misrepresentation
claims in both actions should go
to trial. Both sides appealed, the
tobacco industry seeking restora-
tion of the claims rejected by the
appellate court.

Writing for a unanimous court,
Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin
concluded that it was “plain and
obvious that the tobacco compan-
ies’ claims against Canada have no
reasonable chance of success, and
should be struck out.”
Allowing Canada’s appeals in
both cases, the court dismissed the
companies’ cross-appeals and
awarded costs throughout to the
class-action plaintiffs but no costs
against or in favour of B.C. in the
costs-recovery action.

In its bid to have Canada named as a third party in Knight, Imperial alleged that Health Canada advised tobacco companies and the public that low-tar cigarettes were less hazardous than regular cigarettes, and that while Health Canada was initially opposed to the use of health warnings on cigarette packaging, it changed its policy in 1967, instructing smokers to switch to low-tar cigarettes if they were unwilling to quit smoking altogether and asking tobacco companies to voluntarily list the tar and nicotine levels on their advertisements to encourage consumers to purchase low-tar brands.

Imperial also alleged that Agriculture Canada researched, developed, manufactured and licensed several strains of low-tar tobacco and collected royalties

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third-party notices in
smoking lawsuits

(L-R) Paul Vickery, John Tyhurst and Travis Henderson, lawyers at Justice Canada, succeeded in having the court strike a claim by Imperial Tobacco.

BRIGITTE BOUVIER FOR THE LAWYERS WEEKLY

See Imperial Page 8

Vol. 22, No. 27 NEWS FOR THE LEGAL PROFESSION December 6, 2002

THE LAWYERS WEEKLY

VOL. 22, NO. 27 NEWS FOR THE LEGAL PROFESSION DECEMBER 6, 2002

SCC strikes company’s

Check out our preview of hot CLE topics at the conference

Why firms haven’t warmed up to ‘temp’ lawyers

NETWORKING

Solos need to network

LUIS MILLAN

Contract legal staffing, a growing phenomena in the U.S. and a staple in the U.K., has yet to gain a firm foothold in Canada despite tighter budgets. It has made some inroads within corporate spheres but very little headway with law firms, according to legal consultants and legal recruitment experts.

While the legal staffing mar-
ket in the U.S. is projected to
increase by a robust 25 per cent
cumulatively over the next two
years, according to temp-indus-
try tracking group Staffing Indus-
try Analysts, it is still “early days”
in Canada, with some experts
speculating that it may be a long
time, if ever, before it is wholly
embraced by the Canadian cor-
porate and legal community.

“I see there’s lots of use for it in
a practical application, the same
way as in the U.S., but I don’t see
a lot of uptake on it in the fore-
seeable future in the next four,
five years,” remarked Richard
Stock, the founding partner of
legal services consulting firm
Catalyst Consulting. “I still
believe that 95 per cent of legal
services are going to be provided
by a combination of inside and
outside counsel, through a pre-
ferred law firm arrangement.”
Even Christopher Sweeney,
co-founder of ZSA Legal Recruit-
ment, acknowledges that “we’re
still at the evangelical stage.”
However, Sweeney believes it is
“inevitable” that the Canadian
legal marketplace will eventually
follow in the footsteps of its
American and British counter-
parts and take advantage of the
cost savings that can be gleaned
from outsourced “commoditized”
legal work such as document
review. In fact, he is counting on
it. That’s why he decided to take
the plunge and established Lex-
Locom, a legal outsourcing spe-
cialist that provides Canada’s
legal community with document
review services, temporary and
part-time legal staffing as well as
consulting services.
Through its affiliation with
ZSA, LexLocom boasts access to
See Temps Page 5
THE LAWYERS WEEKLY

VOL. 22, NO. 27 NEWS FOR THE LEGAL PROFESSION DECEMBER 6, 2002

PAGE 23

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