(Montreal) The Quebec Court of Appeal has approved a $28 million out-of-court settlement in a class action brought against the Clercs de Saint-Viateur du Canada by victims of sexual assault.
A settlement was reached in January 2022, but last July Superior Court Judge Thomas M. Davis ruled that the $8 million attorneys’ fee was excessive.
The judge admitted that the lawyers for the 375 sexual assault victims had done a “remarkable job” in the case, but he wanted a new agreement with more reasonable fees.
In a decision dated Monday, the Quebec Court of Appeal approved the new agreement, after the lawyers reduced their fees to 20% of the total amount of the settlement, or a sum of approximately 5.6 million.
The lawyers also agreed to contribute nearly $100,000 to the Quebec Collective Action Fund.
The lawsuit against the Clercs de Saint-Viateur, filed in 2017, concerned crimes of a sexual nature committed since 1935 in about twenty establishments managed by the Catholic religious order established in Quebec.
