Forthcoming in 2018: The Class Actions Controversy: The Origins and Development of the Ontario Class Proceedings Act, by Suzanne Chiodo

Forthcoming from The Osgoode Society and Irwin Law, the "optional extra" Osgoode Society book for 2018 is  The Class Actions Controversy: The Origins and Development of the Ontario Class Proceedings Act by Suzanne Chiodo.

This book is a historical study of class actions in Ontario, from the origins of representative proceedings in equity, to the rise of modern-day class actions around the world (particularly in the US and Québec), to the debate and passage of class proceedings legislation in Ontario. This is the first in-depth analysis of the history of the Class Proceedings Act and the political and social influences that shaped it, and the first examination of the historical record underlying the CPA. The Act remains one of the most frequently debated procedural mechanisms of its kind. The CPA came about following the release of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee (AGAC) Report in 1990. None of the current narratives explain how this Report pulled together so many divergent interests where previous attempts had failed. This book answers that question with reference to the legal, political and social environment of the time.

Suzanne Chiodo is a doctoral candidate in Law at Oriel College, Oxford University. She also completed her undergraduate degree in Modern History at Oxford.

Before beginning her doctorate in October 2017, Suzanne was a class actions lawyer at Rochon Genova LLP in Toronto. She completed her LLM in December 2016, supported by funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and numerous other sources. Her book The Class Actions Controversy arises from her LLM thesis on the history of the Ontario Class Proceedings Act.

Suzanne has taught courses on civil procedure at Osgoode Hall Law School, and has presented papers to the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History, the Ontario Bar Association and the Ontario Human Rights Commission. In addition, she has published numerous papers on class actions and tort law.

Suzanne completed her articles of clerkship for the Honourable Mr Justice O’Reilly at the Federal Court. She obtained her JD with Distinction at Western Law, where she spearheaded a successful effort to establish the school’s first student-run academic journal. She received the Law Society of Upper Canada prize for graduating near the top of her class at Western, and also won numerous awards and scholarships for academic excellence, including the JSD Tory Writing Award for original historical research on the international law of occupation that she conducted with Rande Kostal.