Is The Game Of "Whack-A-Mole" Coming To An End?

The existence of multiple overlapping national class actions in different jurisdictions was described by the Saskatchewan court in 2011 as a "multi-jurisdictional game of class action whack-a-mole".¹ Whether overlapping actions are commenced by one plaintiff's counsel or competing plaintiff's counsel, the result is the same – the interests of the class members are not generally advanced, the defendants are put to the time and expense of attempting to rationalize the proceedings and the court's time is wasted.

When national class actions are launched in different jurisdictions, the court of one province does not have jurisdiction to stay a similar or identical national class proceeding brought in another province. Early decisions illustrated difficulties such as a provincial court's bias towards asserting its own jurisdiction² and the certification of competing overlapping class actions when judicial comity was not extended.³