The year 2014 brought further development and maturity to Canadian securities class action regimes but the case law continues to reveal discordant themes.

Preliminary issues relating to jurisdiction, the leave test and certification remained a primary focus, while the Supreme Court of Canada’s granting of leave in four securities class actions will open the door to a new level of appellate guidance that will hopefully resolve some of the most significant controversies arising from the early cases interpreting Part XXIII.1 of the Ontario Securities Act (OSA) and its provincial counterparts. These controversies include the interpretation of the statutory limitation provision, the leave standard, and the appropriateness of certifying “commonlaw claims” advanced in tandem with statutory secondary market misrepresentation claims.

As the case law continues to develop, active securities class actions are piling up. Eleven new securities class actions were filed in Canada in 2014, including eight in Ontario. According to trends data compiled in a recent report by NERA Economic Consulting,1 these figures match the number of actions filed in 2013 and bring the total number of pending actions in Canada to 60, more than double the number five years ago. These active securities class actions represent more than C$35-billion in total claims. Additionally, six securities class actions were settled or tentatively settled in 2014, collectively worth C$38.4-million. The average of these settlements was C$6.4-million, and the median was C$6.4-million.