What are the basic criteria for OCI©?

a) The lawsuit must have good merits and a value exceeding $500,000.

b) The lawsuit must be before a Canadian court; or the arbitration must be within Canada.

c) The lawsuit must be for monetary damages.

d) The plaintiff's lawsuit must be supported financially, generally via a contingency fee retainer with the plaintiff's lawyer and/or Third Party litigation funding.

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Do you have examples of opponent's costs awarded against plaintiffs?

In 2000, in a class action (Gariepy v. Shell Oil Co. (2000) 23 CPC (5th) 360 Ont. SCJ), costs in the amount of $175,000 were awarded against the putative plaintiff.

In 2005, in another class action, the Ontario Court of Appeal dismissed the action and ordered the representative plaintiff, who claimed a loss of $518,000 on his shares, to pay the opponent's legal costs. The defendants' initial ballpark estimates of their total legal costs for the 44-day trial, four days at the Court of Appeal, plus a day trip to the Supreme Court, ranged from $2 million to $3.3 million.

In 2007, in the first securities class action to go to trial in Canada (Kerr v. Danier Leather), the Supreme Court of Canada saddled the plaintiff with an adverse cost award. (The amount was not published but is believed to be very significant).

The above all pale in comparison to the $160 million cost award in 2000 against the claimant liquidators of BCCI SA in their case against the Bank of England.

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What is the premium?

The premium can vary generally from 17.5% to 37.5% of the Policy Limit.

Who is the insurer?

Berkley Canada Inc.

© Parapet Underwriters Inc. 2010