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ARTICLE · 10 DECEMBER 2015

"Deplorable" Legal Fees Agreement "Settlement-Driven" And "Fundamentally And Profoundly Unacceptable"

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In a recent settlement and fees approval motion in McCallum-Boxe v. Sony, 2015 ONSC 6896, Justice Belobaba had to determine the reasonable amount of fees and disbursements to which plaintiff's counsel was entitled.

CanadaLitigation, Mediation & Arbitration
Brian Radnoff
Brian Radnoff
Rebecca Case
Rebecca Case
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In a recent settlement and fees approval motion in McCallum-Boxe v. Sony, 2015 ONSC 6896, Justice Belobaba had to determine the reasonable amount of fees and disbursements to which plaintiff's counsel was entitled. This was an aspect of the parties' settlement agreement. To accomplish this task, he quite reasonably asked about the nature of plaintiffs' counsel's contractual entitlements. He was shocked to learn that there was no written retainer agreement, that the class was not obliged to pay any fees or costs, that there was no contingency fee arrangement and that class counsel intended to recover their fees "as part of the (hoped for) settlement". Class counsel further advised that it had similar arrangements in many of their class actions, which Justice Belobaba found disturbing.

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