CEF Representative Action: Higgerty Law Update – Dec 9, 2019

Now that the CCAA process is almost done, the folks at Higgerty Law have been moving the CEF Representative Action case forward, and they recently published the following update to their CEF page.

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December 9, 2019

A third case management meeting occurred on December 5, 2019 at our initiation wherein most notably the Scheduling Order was signed by the Case Management Judge.

The following generally are the more immediate timelines under the Scheduling Order:

 

• the process in relation to the Plaintiffs and the Plaintiffs’ forensic accounting expert on their sworn statements in support of certification of the Class Action should be completed by no later than July 30, 2020;

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According to Investopedia – forensic accounting is:

Forensic accounting utilizes accounting, auditing and investigative skills to conduct an examination into the finances of an individual or business. Forensic accounting provides an accounting analysis suitable to be used in legal proceedings. Forensic accountants are trained to look beyond the numbers and deal with the business reality of a situation. Forensic accounting is frequently used in fraud and embezzlement cases to explain the nature of a financial crime in court.

An alternative way of looking at this is that forensic accountants are trained to dig into the financial numbers of a business, figure out what was really going even when people actively tried to hide their actions, and get to the truth of what happened in a company.

For example the people running CEF / DIL made a number of unsophisticated attempts to hide how bad their financial situation was – a forensic accountant would “pull back the curtain” as it were, figure out what actually happened, and write a report to that effect.

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• the Defendants will then have until November 22, 2020 to file and serve their sworn statements in opposition to Certification, unless extended by agreement or court order for up to an additional 60 days;
• a similar process with similar timing in relation to the Defendant’s sworn statements will follow;
• within 30 days of completion of the last of those steps, the Case Management Justice will be asked to schedule application(s) to conclude the Certification phase of this Action.

 

We will advise you further on the timelines in due course.

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What this means is that we’re looking at sometime in the Feb-June 2021 time period before Certification is completed and the next steps can be taken in this case.

Whatever happens, I’ll be here watching and reporting.

ANO