By Peter Spiro ( August 9, 2019, 2:28 PM EDT) -- The standard rule in Canadian civil litigation is that the loser pays a portion of the legal costs of the winning side. Such a rule does not make sense for class actions, including employee class actions. There is a single plaintiff in court who represents a large class of persons — the representative plaintiff. No sane representative plaintiff who might stand to gain $100 from the success of a class action is going to expose himself to the risk of an adverse cost award that could be over $1 million....