Canadian Securities Class Actions Year In Review

2013 was marked by contrasting approaches as motions judges grappled with complex preliminary matters that arose in securities class actions. Issues of jurisdiction and competing forums were at the fore and cases involving proposed global classes of plaintiffs, duplicative cross-border actions and parallel regulatory proceedings were all noteworthy trends in 2013. The outcomes in these decisions suggest that more appellate guidance is necessary to settle the governing legal principles and provide certainty for public issuers and other defendants facing potential exposure to securities class actions in Canada.

Ten new securities class actions were filed in Canada in 2013; eight of these were filed in Ontario. According to trends data compiled by NERA Economic Consulting, this matches the number of actions filed in 2012 and brings the total number of pending actions in Canada to 54. These existing securities class actions represent more than C$19-billion in total claims.