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| GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THESE CLASS ACTIONS |
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| Q: | What are these class actions about? |
| A: | These class actions seek to recover the difference between the export price paid by the domestic manufacturers (Rothman’s Benson & Hedges Inc., Imperial Tobacco Canada Limited and JTI-MacDonald Corp.) for Ontario tobacco at the Board’s auctions and the higher price they ought to have paid because the tobacco was actually intended for domestic use. The pricing and payment obligations were contained in the agreements negotiated annually by the Board on behalf of Ontario flue-cured tobacco growers and producers |
| Q: | How do I know if I may be a class member? |
| A: | The proposed class in each of the class actions consists of growers and producers in Ontario who sold tobacco through the Board pursuant to agreements during the period January 1, 1986 to December 31, 1996.A judge of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice will hear motions for certification of the class actions to determine whether the cases can proceed as class actions. At the certification motions, the judge will decide whether the class definition is appropriate. Until that time, we cannot determine with exact certainty who is a class member. |
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| PARTICIPATION IN THESE CLASS ACTIONS |
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| Q: | What is required of me if I participate in the class actions? |
| A: | If the class actions are successful and you are a class member, you will eventually be required to complete a claim form in order to submit your claim for payment.You will not be required to attend a trial to determine whether the defendants are liable to the class.
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| Q: | How much money will be recovered and how much will I receive in the event of success? |
| A: | We can never predict how much money will be recovered in the event of success.The amount of money that each person receives will depend upon the amount of the recovery, if any, and the particular losses that each person incurred.
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| PROGRESS OF THESE CLASS ACTIONS |
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| Q: | How long will it take to resolve these actions? |
| A: | It is not possible to predict how long it will take to resolve these actions.These actions are in the preliminary stages. A judge will eventually set a timetable for the conduct of the actions, but that has not occurred yet.
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| CLASS ACTIONS |
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| Q: | Why should I participate in a class action? |
| A: | All of the members of the class stand to benefit from a successful class action and are not burdened with the expense and inconvenience of starting and prosecuting their own lawsuit. |
| Q: | What will it cost me to participate in a class action? |
| A: | Individual class members are not personally liable to pay counsel for prosecuting the common issues in the class action. Individual class members are also not liable to pay any costs if the class action unsuccessful.Counsel will be paid for their services only if the class action is successful. Counsel fees and disbursements are paid from the funds recovered in the action.Court approval of counsel fees and disbursements must be obtained before they are paid.
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| Q: | What is a class action? |
| A: | A class action is a lawsuit commenced by one or more persons on his, her, or their own behalf, which seeks to include others who have suffered a similar harm at the hands of the same person, company or group.At the certification motion, the court is asked to decide whether the lawsuit meets certain legal criteria to be certified as a class action on behalf of a group of people.Once a class action is certified, it allows a group of people to have access to the court in situations where the case would be too expensive or too complex for one person to sue on his or her own. |
| Q: | How does a class action work? |
| A: | In Ontario, class actions are governed by the Class Proceedings Act, 1992, S.O. 1992, c. 6, as amended. Please click here to review a copy of the Act.At the certification motion, a judge decides whether to permit the lawsuit to proceed as a class action and, if so, who will be included in the group or class. If the court decides to permit the lawsuit to proceed as a class action, it will appoint one or more persons to act as the representative for the others in the class. The representative(s) will instruct counsel on behalf of the class members. The court also decides on questions of fact and law which are common to the members of the class. Subsequently, a trial may be held to determine these common issues or the parties to the action may arrive at a settlement. |
