Ontario Divisional Court Confirms Parameters Of Third Party Litigation Funding Agreements

In a recent decision, Houle v. St. Jude Medical Inc., the Ontario Divisional Court dismissed an appeal from the judgment of Justice Perell at the Superior Court of Justice and confirmed the parameters of acceptable third party litigation funding agreements in class actions.

Houle is a proposed product liability class action which concerns the alleged negligent design and manufacture of cardiac defibrillator devices that were surgically implanted in the proposed class members. The representative plaintiffs retained class counsel on a contingency fee basis whereby counsel would receive 33% of any recovery in the lawsuit. The retainer agreement specified that the issues of disbursements and adverse costs would be dealt with in a separate litigation funding agreement between the plaintiffs and a third party funder, Bentham IMF Capital Limited.