Jeremy Opolsky on the SCC ruling in favour of litigation financing

Jeremy Opolsky told the Canadian Bar Association’s National Magazine the SCC has addressed litigation financing for the first time in its January 23 decision regarding 9354-9186 Québec inc. v. Callidus Capital Corp.

The SCC released its reasons for the 7-0 decision on May 8 in which permission was granted to a Québec company in receivership to use a litigation funder to realize its only asset in a potential C$200 million lawsuit.

Jeremy told the publication that the reasons for the decision “decides pretty conclusively that litigation funding isn’t illegal”.

“While it doesn’t determine the issue conclusively and pushes off a lot of the nuances of funding into the future, it decides pretty conclusively that litigation funding isn’t illegal and particularly in these circumstances is quite clear that they have a role to play as interim financing in insolvency proceedings,” Jeremy said.

“This case confirms that litigation funding is here to stay, but it’s going to take future cases and litigation to determine how it applies in different contexts, like class actions.

“The court is quite careful here not to determine or weigh in on any particular issues of law as the funding would apply to the class action context.”

Jeremy also noted that although litigation financing can now be seen as another tool in debtors’ toolboxes, it may not be available in every case due to the effect on various stakeholders.

You can read all of Jeremy’s comments in the National Magazine article.

Read more of Torys’ insights on Litigation and Dispute Resolution on the relevant practice page.