Lloyd and the Legislative Void: Representative Actions in Transatlantic Context

The Canadian class action regimes have had a strong influence on the development of collective redress procedures in England. Canadian class proceedings legislation provided a model for the competition law class action regime in the UK, and before then, it featured prominently in the Civil Justice Council’s report that recommended the enactment of generic class actions legislation in England. It is fitting, then, that the UK Supreme Court’s recent decision in Lloyd v Google referred to the Canadian jurisprudence on the representative rule, which allows one or more claimants to represent a group with the ‘same interest’. While Lloyd did not follow the Supreme Court of Canada in allowing representative actions for individualised damages, the decision represents a more liberal reading of the representative rule than in previous cases. Specifically, it affirms the use of the rule for a declaration of the answers to common questions, with individual actions to follow (the ‘bifurcated approach’). This article will situate Lloyd within the context of Canadian and English representative action jurisprudence, and, based on the rule’s development in Canada, will make predictions for its use in England. Article length: 9,963 words

Safety in Numbers or Lost in the Crowd? Litigation of Mass Claims and Access to Justice in Ontario

Ontario’s Class Proceedings Act is 30 years old. In the past three decades, it has inspired similar legislation across Canada and around the world, and its capacity for bringing about social change has been widely acknowledged. But, like all things that mature, some cracks are beginning to show. The certification test under section 5 of the CPA has been made more restrictive by recent legislative amendments. In addition, class action practitioners are starting to recognize that the CPA can be a blunt instrument and that some mass claims are better litigated outside of that context. While smaller claims may find safety in numbers in a class action, larger claims that require more individualized treatment may get lost in the crowd. Outside of the CPA, however, there is minimal guidance in this area, and this can lead to uncertainty and delay. This article proposes a set of informal guidelines for the litigation of mass claims in Ontario, informed by multidistrict litigation in the US and group litigation in England & Wales, as well as the theory and history of mass claims typology. This guidance will reduce uncertainty and delay by facilitating agreement between parties on procedural steps, and provide much-needed direction for a growing phenomenon

Physiatrists as Pain Medicine Physicians

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/147057/1/pmr2171.pd

Tawdry or Honourable? Additional Payments to Representative Plaintiffs in Ontario and Beyond

Additional payments to representative plaintiffs upon the resolution of a class action are widespread in Ontario and elsewhere. However, this subject has received very little attention from appellate courts (at least in Canada), law reformers, and academics. Two conflicting judgments from the Ontario Superior Court have put a spotlight on this practice, however, and it will soon be receiving appellate treatment. The practice has also recently been subject to conflicting appellate decisions in the US. This brings to the fore crucial questions not only about the purpose of such payments, but also about the purposes of class actions in general. This article begins with a brief overview of the subject of additional payments (usually called ‘honoraria’ in Canadian class actions), including the role of the representative plaintiff. Section II considers the threshold question of whether additional payments should be awarded at all, in light of their normative goals and the concerns reflected in the case law. Section III discusses the doctrinal and theoretical basis for additional payments, as well as questions of quantifying those payments and the source from which they should be taken. Section IV proposes a structure for the awarding of additional payments, which is based on the representative plaintiff’s time and expenses but also pursues a trauma-informed approach. Section V concludes. This article brings conceptual clarity to an overlooked area of class actions and provides practical guidance to judges and lawyers. It therefore contributes to our knowledge about class actions and our principled pursuit of them. As two lawyers from an Ontario defence-side firm recently stated, “[e]fforts to identify a brighter line that representative plaintiffs must pass, on compelling evidence, before they are entitled to honoraria payments may be welcomed by many class actions judges.” This article identifies that bright line

Central Nervous System Reorganization in a Variety of Chronic Pain States: A Review

Chronic pain can develop from numerous conditions and is one of the most widespread and disabling health problems today. Unfortunately, the pathophysiology of chronic pain in most of these conditions, along with consistently effective treatments, remain elusive. However, recent advances in neuroimaging and neurophysiology are rapidly expanding our understanding of these pain syndromes. It is now clear that substantial functional and structural changes, or plasticity, in the central nervous system (CNS) are associated with many chronic pain syndromes. A group of cortical and subcortical brain regions, often referred to as the “pain matrix,” often show abnormalities on functional imaging studies in persons with chronic pain, even with different pain locations and etiologies. Changes in the motor and sensory homunculus also are seen. Some of these CNS changes return to a normal state with resolution of the pain. It is hoped that this knowledge will lead to more effective treatments or even new preventative measures. The purpose of this article is to review recent advances in the understanding of the CNS changes associated with chronic pain in a number of clinical entities encountered in the field of physical medicine and rehabilitation. These clinical entities include nonspecific low back pain, fibromyalgia, complex regional pain syndrome, postamputation phantom pain, and chronic pain after spinal cord injury.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146873/1/pmr21116.pd

A Probabilistic Approach for the Optimal Sizing of Storage Devices to Increase the Penetration of Plug-in Electric Vehicles in Direct Current Networks

The growing diffusion of electric vehicles connected to distribution networks for charging purposes is an ongoing problem that utilities must deal with. Direct current networks and storage devices have emerged as a feasible means of satisfying the expected increases in the numbers of vehicles while preserving the effective operation of the network. In this paper, an innovative probabilistic methodology is proposed for the optimal sizing of electrical storage devices with the aim of maximizing the penetration of plug-in electric vehicles while preserving efficient and effective operation of the network. The proposed methodology is based on an analytical solution of the problem concerning the power losses minimization in distribution networks equipped with storage devices. The closed-form expression that was obtained is included in a Monte Carlo simulation procedure aimed at handling the uncertainties in loads and renewable generation units. The results of several numerical applications are reported and discussed to demonstrate the validity of the proposed solution. Also, different penetration levels of generation units were analyzed in order to focus on the importance of renewable generation

Poster 350: Neurosarcoidosis Presenting as a Central Cord Syndrome: A Case Report

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146922/1/pmr2s256a.pd

I soffi carotidei asintomatici scoperti in corso di bilancio preoperatorio. Condotta diagnostica e terapeutica.

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Maintenance Activity, Reliability, Availability, and Related Energy Losses in Ten Operating Photovoltaic Systems up to 1.8 MW

In general, photovoltaic (PV) plants do not include components with moving parts and, as a consequence, they are wrongly considered maintenance-free. Thus, this article presents a maintenance, reliability, and availability analysis of ten PV systems, with different inverter configurations, in the context of the intermittent renewable energy source systems, including the wind farms. The first part of the analysis consists of the evaluation of reliability using failure rates from the literature. In the second part, these results are compared with data obtained from industrial maintenance reports in the years 2016-2018. Finally, the yearly energy losses and the availability of each PV plant are assessed

Poster 312 Efficacy of Combined Intra‐articular Facet Joint and Transforaminal Epidural Steroid Injection in the Management of Symptomatic Lumbosacral Lateral Recess Stenosis: A Retrospective Analysis

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/147060/1/pmr2s280a.pd