Lawyers reach deal over ’60s Scoop legal costs

TORONTO The last legal hurdle holding up compensation to victims of the ’60s Scoop has been cleared with a deal over who pays for a failed appeal against their class-action settlement, documents show.

The deal lets the lawyers off the hook for the costs of their unsuccessful effort on behalf of a small group unhappy with the $750-million settlement. In exchange, they have agreed to take no further steps to challenge the class-action agreement or otherwise hold up its implementation.

Earlier this month, the Federal Court of Appeal rejected the proposed appeal fronted by lawyer Jai Singh Sheikhupura with Vancouver-based Watson Goepel, which had been shut out of the $75 million awarded to the lawyers who had negotiated the classaction settlement. Judge John Laskin decided evidence the applicants had filed in support of their challenge was “inadequate in the extreme.”

While it is normal in litigation for the losing party to cover the legal costs incurred by the winners, the winning lawyers in this case took the unusual step of seeking costs personally from Sheikhupra given the serious misconduct allegations he and one of his clients had made against them. Laskin rejected the accusations as unfounded and asked for submissions on the costs issue.

The documents seen by The Canadian Press show the dispute has now been settled with both sides pulling back.

“The applicants’ solicitors will not seek to appeal nor seek leave to appeal the decision rendered by the Federal Court of Appeal in this matter on Nov. 8, 2018, or any other decision made in connection with the ‘60s Scoop settlement agreement,” the deal states. “Counsel for the respondents will not seek costs against the applicants’ solicitors.”

Sheikhupura did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Kirk Baert, with one of the three law firms waiting to collect $37.5 million as their share of the class-action fees, said the parties planned to advise Laskin on Monday of the costs agreement which he said everyone involved had signed.

The federal government had warned it would not proceed with payouts to Scoop survivors — each stands to get as much as $50,000 — until the legal squabbling had ended. The parties to the new deal have now made it explicit their dispute is done.

“They will not take any further steps of any kind whatsoever to delay implementation of the settlement,” the agreement states.

The request to appeal the classaction agreement finalized over the summer rather than opt out — fewer than a dozen class members did so — came from 11 claimants who said they were Scoop victims, although two dropped out of the proceeding.

Among other things, they alleged they were excluded from the process that led to court approval of the longfought settlement for the harms done when they, as children, were taken from their Indigenous families and placed with non-Indigenous ones. They also expressed unhappiness over the fees awarded to the lawyers who negotiated the deal.

Laskin noted the applicants had failed to show they were survivors of the Scoop and therefore members of the class. Nor did they provide evidence that an appeal of the settlement would be in the best interests of survivors, he said.

The $75 million in legal fees, which the federal government agreed to pay separately from the compensation to the Scoop survivors, became a flashpoint earlier this year when Ontario Superior Court of Justice Edward Belobaba said they were far too high. Belobaba has yet to approve the $37.5 million costs awarded lawyers involved in the Ontario end of the Scoop class action but has signed off on the settlement itself.