Quebec Superior Court Addresses Legal Fees in Class Actions

Litigation Partner Shaun E. Finn was interviewed by The Lawyer's Daily about a recent Québec Superior Court decision criticizing the high legal fees incurred by class action plaintiffs.

A $28 million settlement with a Catholic religious order in a sexual abuse class action has been rejected by the Québec Superior Court because of the high legal fees associated with the agreement. This is the second Québec class action settlement in the past month where legal fees have been critically assessed.

“[T]he big takeaway from this case is that there should be a settlement approval hearing and there should be separate fee approval hearing because if the two are bound together in the way that happened here, the result is that if the fees are found to be unacceptable by the court that means it will doom the settlement and that means that class members will not have access to justice,” said Shaun E. Finn, co-leader of the Class Action Defense Group at BCF and author of several books on class actions.