Ontario Government Sued in $80 million Class Action for Systemic Policy of Not to Reappointing Vice-Chairs and Members of Adjudicative Tribunals
Monkhouse Law has filed for an order to certify a class action lawsuit against the Ontario Government for all full-time and part-time vice-chairs or members of adjudicative tribunals who have been subjected to a breach of contract resulting from the refusal to reappoint members to adjudicative administrative tribunals, despite the recommendation of a tribunal chair, since June 2018.
IMPORTANT – No action is required by those potentially affected to join this class action. In Ontario, class action lawsuits are an “opt out” system, so if this class action lawsuit is certified, all employees who fall under the class action definition will be members of the class unless they opt out.
In 2009, the Adjudicative Tribunals Accountability, Governance and Appointments Act, 2009, S.O.2009, c. 33, Sched. 5 (“ATAGAA”) came into force to put an end to partisan and patronage considerations in the appointment of members of adjudicative tribunals.
Except in certain cases provided by regulation, ATAGAA requires that adjudicative tribunal members be selected by a competitive, merit-based process. Candidates who were appointed based on this process had no reason to view their appointments as partisan and reappointments are not to be subject to changes in government.
Neither appointments nor reappointments under ATAGAA are to be made unless the chair of the tribunal recommended that the person be appointed or reappointed.
Vice-chairs and tribunal members expected to be reappointed, but in 2018 hundreds of qualified adjudicators were not reappointed. The action asks for damages for breach of contract for those who were not reappointed.
The Statement of Claim was issued on August 30, 2021.
More details are in the Press Release.
By decision of Justice Morgan dated June 12, 2023 the action was dismissed following the Crown’s motion to strike the action, the decision is available here.
If you would like to learn more about this potential class action against the Ontario Government please contact Alexandra Monkhouse at .