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Class Action Against BlackBerry

Nelligan Law has commenced a class action against BlackBerry Limited (“BlackBerry”) on behalf of a group of BlackBerry’s employees working in Ontario and across Canada.

Update. September 20th, 2024

Examinations for Discovery

Examinations for discovery of additional witnesses occurred between July and November 2023. Class Counsel examined a second BlackBerry representative, and Counsel for BlackBerry examined five additional Class Members.  

Please see the update of June 1st, 2022 (below) for a further explanation of the examination for discovery process.

Refusals Motion

Following the examinations for discovery, the Plaintiff brought a motion to the Court on May 1, 2024 to request an Order compelling the Defendant to answer certain questions that were refused at the examinations for discovery.

On June 3, 2024, the Court ordered that the Defendant answer certain questions that were refused and produce additional documents.

Confidentiality Protocol

On June 3, 2024, the Court issued an order approving the confidentiality protocol agreed upon by the parties with respect to the handling of confidential information in this litigation.

Judicial Pre-Trial and Trial Dates

The judicial pre-trial is scheduled for December 4, 2024.  

The common issues trial is scheduled to begin on June 2, 2025 and is scheduled to last for 4 weeks.

A judicial pre-trial is a confidential conference between the parties, their lawyers, and a judge to explore the possibility of settlement and to ensure that the action is ready for trial. The judge makes recommendations about the strengths and weaknesses of the case.

Update. July 4th, 2023

Counsel for both the Class Members and BlackBerry have provided and obtained the various undertakings and have resolved any outstanding refusals from the Examinations for Discovery that occurred in May 2022 (please see below the update from June 1st, 2022).

Counsel for both parties will be examining additional witnesses throughout July and August 2023, in order to further determine the facts of the case.

Update. June 1st, 2022

Examinations for discovery of both the Blackberry representative and the representative Plaintiff on behalf of the class members have occurred. The examination of the Blackberry representative occurred on May 2, 3, and 4, 2022, and the examination of the representative Plaintiff occurred on May 12 and 13, 2022.

During the examinations, counsel for both parties provided undertakings and refusals:

  • An undertaking occurs when the person being examined is unable to immediately answer a question or produce a requested document. When this occurs, the lawyer representing the person being examined can undertake (promise) to provide the information or document after the examination.
  • A refusal occurs when the lawyer representing the person being examined refuses to allow their client (the relevant representative) to answer a question or produce a document because they think that the question or request is inappropriate (there are different ways by which a question may be inappropriate).

We are now assessing the results of the examinations. The next steps will include providing and obtaining the various undertakings and addressing the various refusals as makes sense. This could involve motions to the Court if counsel believes that a refusal was inappropriate and would like to try to force an answer or if undertakings are not answered within a reasonable period of time.

Once we have received and provided all answers to undertakings, we will determine whether we will be looking to further examine other witnesses and/or whether we will need to bring a motion to the Court regarding refusals and/or undertakings.

Update. August 31st, 2021

A discovery plan has been finalized and documents have been exchanged between counsel. The next steps are to finalize the review of the documents and to schedule and attend examinations for discovery.

Update. June 10th, 2020

The Court has confirmed the issues for the common issues trial and the parties are working towards finalizing a discovery plan.

Update. December 20th, 2019

Our press release regarding the Notice of Certification of Class Proceeding has been distributed.

Update. December 3rd, 2019

We have received requests about the location of certain documents contained within these materials. The following hyperlinks will take you directly to those documents:

Update. November 29th, 2019

On November 27, 2019, the Court endorsed the Plaintiff’s Litigation Plan, that sets out the timetable for next steps in this Action. Relevant documents from that Order can be found here:

1) November 27, 2019 Order (without the attachments)
2) Litigation Plan
3) Notice to class members

Update. November 19th, 2019

New documents have been added – please see documents section below.

Update. October 7th, 2019

The Divisional Court heard and dismissed BlackBerry’s motion for leave to appeal the certification decision on September 17, 2019.

Update. June 12th, 2019

BlackBerry is seeking leave to appeal the decision of Justice Charbonneau dated May 27th, 2019 certifying our action as proper to proceed as a class action.

No date has as yet been fixed for the hearing of the BlackBerry motion. We will provide an update once further details are available.

Update. May 30th, 2019

The Ontario Superior Court certified a class proceeding against BlackBerry.

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice certified a class proceeding against BlackBerry Ltd. Impacted BlackBerry employees allege the company terminated their employment when BlackBerry allowed its business partner, the Ford Motor Co. of Canada, to offer them new employment without providing any clear offer of continued employment with BlackBerry. With no clear offer of employment from BlackBerry, the impacted employees accepted employment with Ford, without receiving severance from BlackBerry and with no recognition of their seniority from Ford.

The Representative Plaintiff, David Parker, was one of the BlackBerry employees who agreed to employment with Ford after BlackBerry would not provide him with any certainty about his future employment with BlackBerry. He started this Action in 2017 on behalf of the impacted employees with Nelligan O’Brien Payne LLP as Class Counsel.

In a decision this week, Justice Michel Charbonneau concluded that Parker’s application satisfies the criteria for a class proceeding, as outlined in the Class Proceedings Act. Justice Charbonneau certified the class proceeding on behalf of:

All persons in Canada who were employees and/or dependant contractors of BlackBerry Limited (“BlackBerry”), who worked for BlackBerry in Canada and who were offered and accepted employment with the Ford Motor Company of Canada (“Ford”) between January 1, 2017 and April 30, 2017, while excluding BlackBerry employees who filed a complaint pursuant to section 96 of the Employment Standards Act, 2000 seeking termination pay and/or severance pay and did not withdraw that complaint within two weeks.

Parker is named as the representative plaintiff on behalf of these employees. Most of the 300 affected employees are based in Waterloo and Ottawa, Ontario with the rest scattered throughout Ontario and Nova Scotia.

BlackBerry employees interested in more information about the class action should contact our team by reaching out to Heather Nellis: heather.nellis@nelliganlaw.ca and (613) 231-8216. We also encourage them to provide their contact information through the BlackBerry Class Action contact form at the bottom of this page to receive updates about this case.

We will provide further information for impacted employees once that becomes available.

Update. May 7th, 2019

The Certification Motion was scheduled for and did proceed on April 29-30, and May 1, 2019.  The Motions judge has not yet decided the matter. We will provide a further update once a decision has been rendered.

Update. January 10th, 2019

The potential 3rd date for the Certification Motion has been changed.The dates for the Certification Motion are now April 29th and 30th,  and May 1st, 2019 (instead of May 16th) if a 3rd date is required.

Update. October 23, 2018

The updated/revised litigation timetable that was posted on our May 10, 2018 update is no longer current given some additional steps that were required as part of this matter. The Refusals Motion has been heard and decided upon and the additional documents that needed to be produced by BlackBerry have been produced, with no further cross-examinations left to be completed. The next steps are for the parties to exchange their Factum and authorities for purposes of the Certification Motion. However, given the additional steps that were required, the Certification Motion had to be rescheduled; dates are now being canvassed for the spring of 2019. Once this motion is scheduled, we will further update the website.

Update. May 10, 2018

We are now posting an updated/revised litigation timetable that has been agreed-upon by the parties with respect to the remaining steps that lead up to the certification motion. This timetable will be subject to change, if required.

The timetable has been completed up to Item 12 and the motion with respect to BlackBerry’s refusal to answer certain questions or provide certain documentation on its cross-examinations did proceed on April 30th and May 1st as indicated. We await the decision from the judge with respect to this motion. The plaintiff is also now taking steps to change the definition of the class. No decision will be rendered by the judge on the motion until that change has formally taken place.

We will provide another update once more information becomes available.

You can download Revised Timetable for Certification Motion from the Documents section

Update. February 5, 2017

BlackBerry arranged to transfer over 300 employees across Canada to a business partner. Only after employees accepted employment with the business partner, BlackBerry informed the employees that they had resigned their employment. Blackberry provided resignation letters for the employees to sign and dictated their last date of employment. Blackberry stated that the transfer is not a sale of business, meaning the employees will lose all of their years of service.

BlackBerry’s actions amount to a termination of the employees’ employment. This entitles these employees to statutory, common law, and/or contractual entitlements on termination. BlackBerry has stated that it will not pay BlackBerry employees any of these entitlements, despite the fact that employees lose all of their years of service.

BlackBerry has breached its duties of good faith and honesty, and has knowingly misled the employees. BlackBerry structured this transaction in such a way as to avoid paying these employees their statutory entitlements.

We seek damages for the plaintiffs for minimum provincial statutory entitlements on termination, contractual entitlements on termination, and/or common law entitlements on termination. We are also asking for bad faith and punitive damages, as well as costs.

Plaintiffs in the class action include individuals who were employees and/or dependent contractors of BlackBerry Limited in Canada, and who were offered and accepted employment with the business partner.

BlackBerry has given letters of resignation to employees to sign. We strongly discourage employees from signing such letters. Employees can contact our office if they have any questions.

BlackBerry Class Action Updates

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Contact Information/Employee Enquiries:

Rhian Foley
rhian.foley@nelliganlaw.ca

Media Enquiries:

Rhian Foley
rhian.foley@nelliganlaw.ca

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  • May 30th, 2019. The Ontario Superior Court certified a class proceeding against BlackBerry.
  • July 24, 2017. Court Endorsement and Attached Timeline for Certification Motion are available in Documents section
  • July 4, 2017. Motion Record Of The Moving Party is available in Documents section
  • March 23, 2017. Statement of claim is available in Documents section
  • February 16, 2017 Class Action Against BlackBerry commenced

The certification motion date could be subject to change

 

[Media Release] Timeline for Certification Motion regarding the BlackBerry Class Action has been set (7/24/2017)

[Media Release] BlackBerry Class Action (2/16/2017)

What is a Class Action lawsuit?
A class action is a special type of lawsuit in which one plaintiff, named the representative plaintiff, claims against one or more defendants on behalf of a group of people, known as the class, where common issues exist within the class.

What are the benefits of starting a Class Action lawsuit?
A class action allows one lawsuit to be argued, instead of numerous, oftentimes hundreds, of individual lawsuits, when common issues exist among those class members. A class action saves both time and money to the individual class members, and helps with scarce judicial resources.

What are the steps in a Class Action lawsuit?
The first step, similar to any lawsuit, is to issue a Statement of Claim (“Claim”). This is a document that concisely sets out the relevant facts and also the award the plaintiff is seeking from the defendant. Only the representative plaintiff is named in a class action Claim – not every class member. The Defendant(s) will have 20 days from the date the Claim is issued to file its Statement of Defence (“Defence”), although a the Defendant may insist the class action be certified first.

In Ontario, all class actions must be certified by a court. In order to do this, the plaintiff must bring a motion to certify the class. If the Defendant(s) contest(s) the motion to certify, there will be a pre-certification case management conference.

Next, at the Certification Motion, the court will determine whether the proceeding is appropriate for a class action and if so, the court will deal with the details of the certification.

Once the certification order has been made, the court will approve a method of providing notice to all class members of the class action. This is to let every class member know that a class action has been commenced on their behalf, and to give them the opportunity to opt out of the class action should they wish to. This is required as every individual who fits within the definition of the class will automatically be included in the class, unless and until they opt out.

After certification is granted, there is usually a limited window of opportunity to opt out.  This window has tended to range from 30-120 days in Ontario, but can run longer in some cases.

If the Defendant(s) has/have not by this point provided a Defence, they will. Then, the regular steps of litigation, generally including Mediation, Discoveries, and Pre-trial will take place. If there is any settlement, the settlement must be approved by the Court. If not, the matter would proceed to trial.

What is the difference between a class action and a group action?
The difference is the obligation to certify the class action.  A class action binds everybody who meets the description of the class, so the court needs to supervise its creation.  A group action, on the other hand, only binds the members of that group who bring the claim.  A class action takes more time to put together because of the certification motion, but usually ends up being cheaper because costs are shared among the entire class.

Who is named in a Class Action?
Only the representative plaintiff and the Defendant(s) are specifically named in the class action. The representative plaintiff is a member of the class who represents all members of the class and who has responsibilities placed upon him/her throughout the litigation process.

How are the parameters of the class determined?
The class is chosen by the representative plaintiff.  The Court can then either accept the class or require a different class.  Courts are generally deferential to the class chosen by the representative plaintiff.  The Supreme Court of Canada has stated that so long as the class is bounded (i.e. not unlimited), and defined by reference to objective criteria, it is acceptable.

What is done about class members who become “loose cannons”?
If a class member refuses to accept the terms of the settlement, then legally they have to opt out of the class.  Since terms of settlement have to be court-approved, a “loose cannon” would have to convince the court that the settlement is inappropriate in order to affect the rest of the class.

Can the Statement of Claim be modified to add other common issues?
In Ontario, the representative plaintiff cannot amend its Statement of Claim without the permission of the Court.  The Court will not allow the representative plaintiff to add new common issues that contain “serious new allegations which fundamentally change the nature of the action to one quite different from the action originally certified.”

I want to take part in this class action – what do I do?
Anyone who falls within the parameters of the class – currently, “all persons in Canada who are or were employees and/or dependent contractors of BlackBerry Limited (“BlackBerry”) who work or worked for BlackBerry in Canada, and who were offered and accepted employment with Ford Motor Company of Canada (“Ford”) after January 1, 2017”,  is automatically a class member. There is no opting into a class action. Once the class becomes certified (see above for more information), you will have an opportunity to opt out of the class action should you wish to do so.

If you fall within the parameters of the class, we ask that you click here, and complete the “BlackBerry class member contact form”. Once completed, we will contact you for more information, which will include an opportunity to provide us with relevant documents.

Should you later change your mind after the action is certified, you are still able to opt out.

If you have general questions that cannot be answered by way of these FAQs, please do not hesitate to contact us at blackberryclass@nelliganlaw.ca.

I have been asked to sign a resignation letter – what should I do?
We strongly discourage employees from signing these letters. If you have any questions about what to do, you should contact our office directly. You can reach us at: blackberryclass@nelliganlaw.ca.

What happens if I have already signed a resignation letter?
If you have already signed a resignation letter, you will still be a class member. If you have any questions about what to do, you should contact our office directly. You can reach us at: blackberryclass@nelliganlaw.ca.

I am worried about my job with Ford. Can Ford do anything to my employment if I choose to join this class action?
We have started this class action on behalf of employees, so that they do not have to bring individual claims and so they can remain anonymous, because we are aware they have concerns about their employment with Ford. We will not be providing Ford or Blackberry with any information about individuals who contact us.

In any event, the claim, in part, is seeking to enforce your statutory rights on termination, including those found within Ontario’s Employment Standards Act, 2000 (“ESA”). This type of legislation contains protections from reprisal (any penalty) for asserting a right under employment statutes. If Ford treats you negatively or dismisses you for trying to enforce your rights, they would be in contravention of the ESA and other provincial employment statutes.

If I am a Class Member, how will I be provided with notice once the action is certified?
Notice will only be provided after we receive the Certification Order from the court. Notice can be provided in a variety of ways, including mail, advertisements, and postings. The notice would also be posted on our website.

I do not want to take part in this class action – what do I do?
As described above, you will be able to opt out of this class action once the Certification Order has been received, and after notice to the class members has been sent. At that time, you will be able to complete an opt-out form and provide that to us.

If I choose to remain a member of the Class, will my name be made public?
Only the name of the representative plaintiff will be made public. We will not release any names to BlackBerry until much later in the process when remedies are being determined and will do all we can to protect the confidentiality of your personal information.

How will the case be managed between the lawyers of Nelligan O’Brien Payne, the representative plaintiff, and the class members?
The representative plaintiff will work directly with our firm to move this lawsuit forward and represent the class members in court. He has the duty to perform certain tasks with respect to the litigation, including being examined during discovery.  Class members will be updated frequently about what is going on.

General information about the lawsuit will be posted on our website at https://nelliganlaw.ca/class-actions/blackberry/.

Will I need to pay anything to Nelligan O’Brien Payne in order to remain a member of the Class?
No. We are not requiring class members to pay anything to the firm in order for them to be and remain a member of the Class.

What are the chances of winning this Class Action?
It is impossible to predict whether we will win this lawsuit. However, we would not have chosen to start this action if we did not feel that we would be successful.

How much money will I get if Nelligan O’Brien Payne wins the Class Action?
There is more than one way to win this action. We could either settle the claim outside the courtroom or go to court, for a full trial. Therefore, it is hard to predict how much money any one class member would receive. This depends on when the claim is settled, for how much it settles, how many members remain as part of the class, and your individual entitlements to notice and severance, among other variables.

If Nelligan O’Brien Payne loses the Class Action, will I owe the firm or BlackBerry any money?
If we lose this action, you will not owe any money to the firm or BlackBerry as a result of this Class Action.

How long will it take for this Class Action to be resolved?
An action may settle prior to going to court, or after trial. It is impossible to predict how long this action will take to resolve. However, we will work hard to diligently move this file forward.

Have Questions?

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