Class Action Lawyers’ Fees: The Court of Appeal Sets the Record Straight

In a Thomson Reuters column, our partner Annie–Claude Trudeau and our lawyer Kristina Pellerin-Stonier commented on a Court of Appeal decision regarding what constitutes reasonable attorneys’ fees when approving a settlement agreement in a class action file.

In A.B. v. Clercs de Saint-Viateur du Canada, the Court of Appeal was called upon to rule on the trial judge’s refusal to approve a settlement on the grounds that the lawyers’ fees were unreasonable, and that his hands were tied by the settlement’s terms, preventing him from interfering.

According to the authors, this ruling ranks among the must-reads for class action practitioners who draft settlement agreements that include a provision for approval of class counsel’s fees. While making a settlement conditional on approval of attorneys’ fees should be avoided, no single model exists to determine the reasonableness of class counsel’s fees, and a rigorous justification remains necessary.