On August 22, 2017, Shirley and Roland Houle will be in court seeking Court approval of the third-party litigation funding agreement they have entered into with Bentham IMF, the Canadian subsidiary of Bentham IMF Capital Limited. If the agreement is approved, this will be the first Canadian class action funded by Bentham IMF.
Spark LLP will be live tweeting the approval hearing using the hashtag, #HouleApproval. Follow along!
Background to the Hearing
On March 30, 2017, Shirley and Roland Houle started a class action against St. Jude Medical Inc. and its subsidiary, St. Jude Medical Canada Inc. The claim relates to malfunctioning batteries contained in internal cardiac defibrillators manufactured between January 2010 and May 23, 2015, and implanted in approximately 8,000 Canadians.
Class actions provide access to justice to a group of people who would not have the resources to pursue their claims individually. Class actions are not without risk for the plaintiffs, though. In Canada, parties to a class action can be subjected to adverse cost awards. Third party litigation funding provides protection against adverse cost awards to representative plaintiffs in exchange for a share of the award. Agreements for third-party litigation funding must be approved by the Court, however, in order to be effective.
The Houles are represented by Marg Waddell of Waddell Phillips and Paul Miller of Howie Sacks & Henry. Bentham IMF is being represented by David Lederman of Goodmans LLP
Samantha Schreiber
Samantha was the first employee lawyer to join Spark LLP, joining the firm in early 2017. She assisted with the firm’s litigation matters for two years before deciding to leave and join a mid-sized Bay Street firm.
