Survivors seeking closure are wondering how long it’s going to take lawyers to sort out legal fees for the ‘60s Scoop national settlement agreement.
“I am looking forward to this all being done with,” said Shawn Fairholm of Vancouver. “It has caused so much drama and taken the focus off healing.”
What lawyers will be paid is the last hurdle remaining after Wednesday’s ruling by Justice Edward Belobaba of Ontario Superior Court.
The judge approved everything the federal government is offering survivors in the $875-million package but balked at what lawyers are asking.
“I am not satisfied that $75 million for legal fees is anywhere close to reasonable,” he said in a written decision released Wednesday.
The delay threatens to hold up compensation claims for an estimated 22,400 survivors of the 40-year adoption process that “scooped” Indigenous children nation-wide and placed them with non-Indigenous foster or adoptive parents.
“I’m happy that he approved what he could – the compensation and the healing foundation parts,” said survivor Raven Sinclair of Regina.
But she’s “frustrated that this means a delay while the lawyers and Canada renegotiate. I’m anxious that if the negotiations break down, what does that mean for survivors?”
Federal court Judge Michael Shore signed off on the settlement agreement in Saskatoon in May.
He and Belobaba – in provincial court – have to approve the settlement on the same terms in what Ontario lawyer Morris Cooper called a “multi-jurisdictional case across Canada.”
Belobaba has a problem with fees being sought by three law firms in federal court – Koskie Minsky, Merchant Law Group and Klein Law – but not two firms in Ontario provincial court – Wilson- Christen and Cooper Law.
The latter have been on the case the longest beginning in 2009.
The judge asked them to separate their fees from the settlement approval – known as de-linking – so survivors could be paid sooner but didn’t achieve consensus. Wilson-Christen and Cooper agreed while the other three did not.
“We agreed but the lawyers in the federal court proceedings took the position that de-linking was not required for them,” said Cooper, one of the lawyers for the Ontario plaintiffs.
“Their view was the Ontario judge’s jurisdiction extended to approving our fees alone,” Cooper added. “And, as you see in the decision, the judge said,
‘That’s wrong.’”
Belobaba says the lawyers have to sort this out based on the time invested since they joined the case – something Cooper says could lead to “new law in mega-fund cases” valued at more than $100-million.
“It’s possibly precedent-setting in class-action law,” Cooper said of the legal issues at play.
“He’s basically saying that the approach typically taken of getting a percentage from the claimants might well apply in cases under $100 million, but when they’re in the mega-fund category…he says the approach to legal fees has to be substantively and materially different.”
How did these other lawyers get involved in this case to begin with? It began with Wilson Christen and Cooper law….I do not understand why we needed so many lawyers ended up involved in this case.
Can someone explain this to me? I am furious that these lawyers are holding up the process of this case that has gone on for so long that I thought it would never be resolved. All of us have had a long hard journey and would like to have some kind of closure, and we were there, or we thought we were back on May 39th this year and then again on June 6, and then again today. These lawyers that jumped in at the end of all of this only saw $$ not a way to help us. I want to know how they situated themselves in our case!
I think it seemed a good idea at the time. And for the 60s scoop survivors across the country it is a good thing. Chief Marcia Martell Brown has done 10 years of battling in the courts for the Ontario survivors of 1965-1984 and when it seemed possible to extend this to survivors all across Canada and for those scooped from 1951 to 1991, without any of them having to engage in courtroom battles or hire their own lawyers, it seemed like a good idea.
Just gotta get those newbie lawyers (Koskie Minskey, Merchant Law, and Klein Law) to stop seeing dollar signs and make decisions they will be able to live with, and go to sleep at night with.
Btw, I totally agree with Justice Balboa questioning the fees. When the residential school survivors got their settlement, the lawyers clawed back a huge percentage, leaving many feeling hurt and betrayed once again.
How did these other lawyers get involved in this case to begin with? It began with Wilson Christen and Cooper law….I do not understand why we needed so many lawyers ended up involved in this case.
Can someone explain this to me? I am furious that these lawyers are holding up the process of this case that has gone on for so long that I thought it would never be resolved. All of us have had a long hard journey and would like to have some kind of closure, and we were there, or we thought we were back on May 39th this year and then again on June 6, and then again today. These lawyers that jumped in at the end of all of this only saw $$ not a way to help us. I want to know how they situated themselves in our case!
I think it seemed a good idea at the time. And for the 60s scoop survivors across the country it is a good thing. Chief Marcia Martell Brown has done 10 years of battling in the courts for the Ontario survivors of 1965-1984 and when it seemed possible to extend this to survivors all across Canada and for those scooped from 1951 to 1991, without any of them having to engage in courtroom battles or hire their own lawyers, it seemed like a good idea.
Just gotta get those newbie lawyers (Koskie Minskey, Merchant Law, and Klein Law) to stop seeing dollar signs and make decisions they will be able to live with, and go to sleep at night with.
Btw, I totally agree with Justice Balboa questioning the fees. When the residential school survivors got their settlement, the lawyers clawed back a huge percentage, leaving many feeling hurt and betrayed once again.