Have you ever been curious about how a class action lawsuit in Canada works? A lawsuit is important if someone has suffered wrongdoing. We cannot live in a society where people can do whatever they want. People, companies, and governments must be held accountable for breaking contracts or causing harm.
A lawsuit can be called an action or a civil lawsuit. A class-action lawsuit in Canada is a specific kind of lawsuit. We will cover this in detail later. A civil litigation lawsuit is between two people. This is different than criminal law. You cannot sue someone for committing a criminal offence. You can only sue someone for damages from a “tort.”
If you are wanting to start a lawsuit in Ontario or BC, contact us. We can have one of our business lawyers in Victoria, Vancouver, or Toronto call you.
Starting a Class Action Lawsuit in Canada is extremely hard. Most people just hire a business lawyer to file a lawsuit for themselves. This can be done in either the provincial court or the Supreme Court.
Supreme Court
A lawsuit is how you get compensated for the damages from another person or company. This might be personal injury law or an employment lawsuit. Family law is also part of the civil litigation process, but it has its own forms. However, the court process is still the same. With criminal law, the result of doing harm is against society, not against one person. You can go to jail for criminal law, but not civil law (lawsuits in Canada.)
Defamation is an example of something someone can sue for. It’s when someone writes or says something untrue about you. Further, it leads to you incurring damages. You need to prove that the thing said was untrue. You also need to show there was reputational harm. If you are responding to a defamation lawsuit, you will want to try and prove what you said was true. If you can prove this, you can file an application with the courts to have the lawsuit thrown out.
Class Action Lawsuit Canada
The main reason why people quickly lose a lawsuit is that they do not take it seriously. They wait a few weeks before reaching out to a business lawyer. If you do this, you are likely going to lose your case. Don’t think that not hiring a lawyer will save you money when dealing with the Supreme Court. If you lose or make mistakes, the court will punish you. They can award cost orders, default judgments, or make you pay court fees multiple times. A judge can award a $10,000 cost fee for you not taking it seriously.
If you are convinced that you want to manage the lawsuit yourself, at least hire a lawyer for self-represented coaching. If you want to see what appearing for yourself in court looks like, the courts are open. You can sit in the public area of a motion hearing or a trial. See if you are convinced that you can teach yourself how to do that. If it’s your goal to do a class-action lawsuit by yourself, don’t bother. You would have to have millions in resources to pay for all the expenses of the lawsuit. All the other plaintiffs would be getting a free ride on your back. It’s not realistic for the average Canadian.
Default Judgment In A Class Action Lawsuit
The first step of the civil procedure process is for the plaintiff to file a notice of claim. The defendant must then file the reply to the notice of claim. If the defendant does not do so, the plaintiff can seek a default judgment. The default judgment will mean that the plaintiff can win the case without a trial. If you have been served with an application or notice of claim, speak to one of our business lawyers in your province right away. There are strict timelines for replying. Further, the lawyer will need time to work on the reply.
A business lawyer in Ontario or British Columbia can help you with the following:
- help you prepare an expert witness
- apply for a default judgment
- assist with keeping within the time limit of replies
- help you through the long discovery process
- assist you in starting an action lawsuit
- make sure you don’t miss the statute of limitation
Discovery Process
Discovery is the process by which both sides provide their evidence. There is no trial ambush. Both sides need to have all the information. About half of the lawsuit will focus on the discovery process. The discovery process includes interrogatories, notice to admit, and document requests. Sometimes someone will send the other side every document to create a massive amount of stress. The last step of the discovery process is the examination for discovery.
It’s a great way to get evidence and destroy the other side’s claim. It takes a ton of time and it’s very expensive. Sometimes you have to look through thousands of pages to learn about the other side’s position. Most litigation matters settle after discovery because both sides are feeling less strong about their positions.
Class Action Lawsuit In Canada
An application for a summary trial will use evidence. It’s like a trial on paper. It’s a way of ending a lawsuit early without going to trial. Both sides must first agree to the evidence being presented before a summary trial can happen. However, a judge can look to see if one side is disputing the evidence only to avoid going to a summary trial.
You don’t have discussions about evidence during a trial. This should all be done before getting to trial. The point of the discovery process is to agree on what evidence will be used.
In conclusion, see our videos to learn more about how to hire an attorney.
Author: Alistair Vigier is the CEO of ClearWay Law