On September 11, 2008, Dan Gleadle and Murray Tevlin appeared before Madam Justice Ballance of the BC Supreme Court to inform the Court of the settlement and to obtain directions for a process to obtain formal court approval.
The Class Proceedings Act requires court approval as to the overall $5.75 million dollar settlement with the defendants, the legal fees of class counsel calculated at 20% of the amount recovered, a proposed fee to Mr. Gregg for his hundreds of hours work advancing the claim on behalf of the class, and the method of distribution of the net amount recovered to the class members.
The Judge, having read the extensive material which we had provided the Court, heard submissions from counsel and indicated that before final approval was given, notice of the proposed plan for distribution should be provided to class members.
Class Counsel intend to give notice to class members via publication on the TevlinGleadle website, word-of-mouth initiated by representative plaintiffs, and by emails to class members outside British Columbia where email addresses are available.
The Court directed that a date be set for a subsequent court hearing for final approval. That date will be October 31, 2008. Any class member is entitled to attend at the court hearing to provide their views to the Court, or to engage their own legal counsel to represent them to advance their particular views in Court.