Securities Class Actions in Canada

With the winter Olympics going full swing in Canada, I thought I would look to how that country is dealing with securities class actions. NERA Economic Consulting just released their 2009 Update on Trends in Canadian Securities Class Actions.

Some tidbits:

  • Eight securities class actions were filed in 2009, compared with the 10 filings in 2008.
  • There are now more than $14.7 billion in outstanding plaintiffs’ claims in Canadian securities class actions.
  • In 2009, six cases settled for total payments of approximately $51 million

These are not big numbers compared to the securities class action activity in the United States. (Which is a good thing from the corporate perspective.) But this is still a new area for Canadian law.

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