I will be the first to admit that I am not a big player on this forum but please hear me out and add in your input. We all know that the DFO is a complete joke and is only getting worse, before we know it there will be nothing left. My worry is for my son/daughter and future generations who will not be able to experience what our great province has to offer. I believe the only way to smarten them up and make the recreational sector a force to reckon with is by a class action lawsuit to hold these clowns accountable. My idea is for us all to vote on whom the most trustworthy and honest person is and put his name on a go fund me. We need to pay him generously for any time put in with a lawyer and give him the funds needed to start this process. I'm a young guy with a family/mortgage but am willing to put up some descent money if I know it's going to a worthwhile cause. This is going to be a huge endeavor and one that a simple go fund me will not be able to accomplish but this can get the ball rolling then perhaps a perpetual fund to keep it rolling (monthly contributions) . Like I said any ideas on how to accomplish this are welcome. We all spend a small fortune on this amazing pastime and it is slowly being eroded away by a completely incompetent group. I am part of a middle class who pay an insane amount of taxes in a country I was born in and feel like I am not being represented. This is the last hail Mary before it is slowly but surely taken away or lost. My vote is for Searun, give him the funds he needs to make this happen!!!!!!
Class action lawsuit
- Thread starter slaydown
- Start date
wildmanyeah
Crew Member
Searun I saw someone post that he is a member of the SFI board. They have quite a few initiatives, perhaps you should email SFI and say your willing to help.
I am confused, what are you trying to articulate? I support SFI.
searun
Well-Known Member
Yes, a class action law suit is an option, one we could investigate as a future tool.
Its certainly a very different approach than what the rec community has endeavoured to do previously. The main thing is to establish that the government failed in a duty, and that the failure lead to damages suffered by a wide range of plaintiffs. One example could be where government failed to properly conduct scientific research to demonstrate they exercised a standard of care when forming a policy decision - and that the policy they put in place caused financial harm to a group of plaintiffs.
In a recreational fishery worth over a $billion each year, it doesn't take long for a class action suit to be attractive to a law firm.
A class action legal suit is less risky if you have a strong case, and a law firm sees there is large potential damages. The reason being they would take on such a case on a contingency fee agreement basis, as opposed to the way most litigation is funded by plaintiffs - payment for hourly fees and disbursements.
An example could be a decision by the Federal Government to move ahead with Critical Habitat designation and management measures based on poorly constructed science advice that leads to wide spread economic harm to coastal communities impacted by Area Closures for example. That could be hundreds of millions in damages - thus on a 30% contingency fee basis could be quite attractive to a law firm to take on such as case. So the financial risk to government could be very significant, and not the sort of litigation they have become accustomed to with regard to fisheries management - although class action suits against the Federal Government are actually quite common.
Deciding to launch a class action suit is a big deal. The next steps are of course understanding that litigation is high risk for many reasons that would take way too much time to explain. Litigation would be a last resort - one would hope we can accomplish similar results through consultation or negotiation...but as a last resort, yes I would go there if we are backed into a corner.
Secondly, one would need to have the right set of circumstances created by the Federal Government to set in motion the conditions necessary for the Class Action suit to have a legal basis for success.
Timing is another consideration - often more can be accomplished by having the legal position and financial capability to carry litigation forward - the parties take you more seriously when you are negotiating!
I'm not a fan of initiating a regular legal suit, but certainly under the right set of circumstances a class action legal suit makes more sense and represents less financial burden to pursue if you have the right case.
Here's a quick bit of background in terms of how they work, and how you get one certified to move ahead:
What is a class action?
A class action is a lawsuit that groups people with a common claim together against the same defendant. Otherwise, all the claims would be separate lawsuits. Mass production and marketing of consumer goods and services mean that a single mistake or wrongful act at any stage of design, production, or distribution can harm many people in a similar way. A class action is one response to these injuries or losses (called mass wrongs).
Often, injured people won’t sue individually because the money they seek is less than their legal costs. And it’s often not practical for just one buyer of a defective product to sue a large manufacturer. But the total loss or damages suffered by many injured people or buyers may be very large. Class actions make lawsuits more affordable by allowing all the victims of a mass wrong to share the cost of a lawsuit. Class actions are mass-produced lawsuits for mass-produced wrongs.
What kinds of cases can use a class action?
Class actions work well in product liability cases when a manufactured item, like a drug or a vehicle, is defective and injures many people. Class actions are also common against governments, banks, and businesses related to the stock market—for overpayment of taxes, illegal service charges, misrepresentations, and even systemic discrimination. Class actions may also work against companies for price fixing, monopolizing the market, and misleading advertising and information. Whenever a mistake or wrongful act affects many people, a class action may be effective. Class actions have been possible in BC since 1996.
Where do you start a class action?
The Class Proceedings Act lets one person sue in BC supreme court for a group of people if they have similar claims against the same wrongdoer. The Federal Court of Canada also allows certain class actions involving federal law and the federal government.
How do you start a class action?
A person who has been hurt or suffered loss can apply to BC supreme court to be the representative plaintiff in a lawsuit for a group of people. The representative plaintiff must also ask the court to certify the lawsuit as aclass proceeding. Once the court certifies a lawsuit, it appoints the lawyer for the representative plaintiff as class counsel. This lawyer is then the lawyer for all the class members. A defendant in two or more cases can also ask the court to convert them into a class action.
Many class actions that are certified are eventually settled. If a court doesn’t certify a class action, the members of the group can usually sue individually, as if the class action had never started.
What does a court need to certify a class action?
The court must certify the lawsuit as a class action if the following five criteria are met:
Its certainly a very different approach than what the rec community has endeavoured to do previously. The main thing is to establish that the government failed in a duty, and that the failure lead to damages suffered by a wide range of plaintiffs. One example could be where government failed to properly conduct scientific research to demonstrate they exercised a standard of care when forming a policy decision - and that the policy they put in place caused financial harm to a group of plaintiffs.
In a recreational fishery worth over a $billion each year, it doesn't take long for a class action suit to be attractive to a law firm.
A class action legal suit is less risky if you have a strong case, and a law firm sees there is large potential damages. The reason being they would take on such a case on a contingency fee agreement basis, as opposed to the way most litigation is funded by plaintiffs - payment for hourly fees and disbursements.
An example could be a decision by the Federal Government to move ahead with Critical Habitat designation and management measures based on poorly constructed science advice that leads to wide spread economic harm to coastal communities impacted by Area Closures for example. That could be hundreds of millions in damages - thus on a 30% contingency fee basis could be quite attractive to a law firm to take on such as case. So the financial risk to government could be very significant, and not the sort of litigation they have become accustomed to with regard to fisheries management - although class action suits against the Federal Government are actually quite common.
Deciding to launch a class action suit is a big deal. The next steps are of course understanding that litigation is high risk for many reasons that would take way too much time to explain. Litigation would be a last resort - one would hope we can accomplish similar results through consultation or negotiation...but as a last resort, yes I would go there if we are backed into a corner.
Secondly, one would need to have the right set of circumstances created by the Federal Government to set in motion the conditions necessary for the Class Action suit to have a legal basis for success.
Timing is another consideration - often more can be accomplished by having the legal position and financial capability to carry litigation forward - the parties take you more seriously when you are negotiating!
I'm not a fan of initiating a regular legal suit, but certainly under the right set of circumstances a class action legal suit makes more sense and represents less financial burden to pursue if you have the right case.
Here's a quick bit of background in terms of how they work, and how you get one certified to move ahead:
What is a class action?
A class action is a lawsuit that groups people with a common claim together against the same defendant. Otherwise, all the claims would be separate lawsuits. Mass production and marketing of consumer goods and services mean that a single mistake or wrongful act at any stage of design, production, or distribution can harm many people in a similar way. A class action is one response to these injuries or losses (called mass wrongs).
Often, injured people won’t sue individually because the money they seek is less than their legal costs. And it’s often not practical for just one buyer of a defective product to sue a large manufacturer. But the total loss or damages suffered by many injured people or buyers may be very large. Class actions make lawsuits more affordable by allowing all the victims of a mass wrong to share the cost of a lawsuit. Class actions are mass-produced lawsuits for mass-produced wrongs.
What kinds of cases can use a class action?
Class actions work well in product liability cases when a manufactured item, like a drug or a vehicle, is defective and injures many people. Class actions are also common against governments, banks, and businesses related to the stock market—for overpayment of taxes, illegal service charges, misrepresentations, and even systemic discrimination. Class actions may also work against companies for price fixing, monopolizing the market, and misleading advertising and information. Whenever a mistake or wrongful act affects many people, a class action may be effective. Class actions have been possible in BC since 1996.
Where do you start a class action?
The Class Proceedings Act lets one person sue in BC supreme court for a group of people if they have similar claims against the same wrongdoer. The Federal Court of Canada also allows certain class actions involving federal law and the federal government.
How do you start a class action?
A person who has been hurt or suffered loss can apply to BC supreme court to be the representative plaintiff in a lawsuit for a group of people. The representative plaintiff must also ask the court to certify the lawsuit as aclass proceeding. Once the court certifies a lawsuit, it appoints the lawyer for the representative plaintiff as class counsel. This lawyer is then the lawyer for all the class members. A defendant in two or more cases can also ask the court to convert them into a class action.
Many class actions that are certified are eventually settled. If a court doesn’t certify a class action, the members of the group can usually sue individually, as if the class action had never started.
What does a court need to certify a class action?
The court must certify the lawsuit as a class action if the following five criteria are met:
- The document that the plaintiff files in court (called the Notice of Civil Claim) shows a legally valid claim based on a mistake or wrongful act.
- The court can identify two or more people as a class, who are then the class members. The class is easily defined, so people can easily tell if they fit into the class. (In some cases, classes are again divided into subclasses.)
- There are common issues in the claims of the class members.
- A class action is the best way to fairly and efficiently resolve the common issues.
- There is a representative plaintiff—someone to represent all the members of the class.
That detailed and informative response is exactly why we need to fund you to accomplish this. If I was a millionaire you would have all you need to do so, brother. I really appreciate all you have and are doing for all of us.
trophywife
Crew Member
all of us in bamfield with homes and business have talked about this if closure happen on behalf of the skrw.
searun
Well-Known Member
No one has decided to pursue a Class Action suit yet. Its a tool that needs further investigation, and as said, I would not suggest taking legal action until all reasonable efforts to influence or negotiate positive change are exhausted, and that we have done our due diligence to ensure it is indeed the right tool and timing. Its easy to think litigation will achieve a goal, but its very risky business.
Here's a good case study example why litigation should be the last tool we consider....Just look at what happened with the 6 green ENGO groups - they launched a splashy law suit to try to force the Federal Government to put an emergency protection order in place and to close down the recreational and commercial chinook fisheries.
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada...feds-to-protect-endangered-killer-whales.html
Poorly timed. Poorly executed. Poorly focused on achievable legal objectives. Did not accomplish anything other than to give their followers the appearance they were taking strong action. Probably the only positive outcome was they raised a lot of money to pay for their over-head - Green ENGO's are BIG business...feeding the funding machine.
Look what happened. Alienated government, encouraged them to walk away from the table and stop participating in productive conversations with all stakeholders to find solutions. And, when their litigation didn't get what they wanted...they very quietly walked away from it. Withdrew their litigation - probably because their legal team told them the exceedingly high cost was tossing good money after bad, with little hope of success.
Its a good case study in what not to do.
wildmanyeah
Crew Member
Commercial Fleet is going to court, Sports Fleet left half of its 5% allocation of fraser sockeye in the water, time to go to court for our fair share? lol
Not sure they are taking the right people to court, should they not be taking the pacific salmon commission to court??
Not sure they are taking the right people to court, should they not be taking the pacific salmon commission to court??
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