The Devil Is In The Detail: The Importance Of Drafting In Enforcing A Class Action Settlement

A recent decision from Manitoba, Meeking v The Cash Store Inc., highlights both the potential and the peril of national class action settlements and the importance of carefully drafting notices to class members. (A copy of the decision can be accessed here.)

In Meeking, the defendants – which owned the "payday" loan chains Instaloans and The Cash Store – brought a motion to enforce a multi-jurisdictional class action settlement that had previously been negotiated and approved in Ontario by the Ontario Superior Court.

The motion was filed after a Manitoba resident brought a new proposed class action that was argued to involve the same allegations and claims as those at issue in the Ontario settlement. The Manitoba resident argued that the portion of the Ontario settlement and judgment releasing the defendants from liability for loans made in Manitoba to residents of Manitoba should not be enforced because the Ontario court had no jurisdiction with respect to