SPEECH ON THE HISTORY OF CLASS ACTIONS IN QUEBEC GIVEN TO FRENCH LAWYERS GATHERING IN MONTREAL
On September 20th, Bertrand Paiement will speak at the meeting of L’amicale des avocats et avoués COVÉA that brings together almost 500 French professionals, property claims adjusters and lawyers (COVÉA).
The speech entitled L’action de groupe au Québec : les 34 années d’existence du recours collectif dans un système civiliste, will, among other things, address the impacts of class actions on the work of loss or damage insurers.
This topic is of special interest to French lawyers given that a bill to introduce this type of recourse in the French legal system passed first reading in the French National Assembly last July 3rd, while the French Senate, in turn, adopted it in first reading on September 14th.
Note that in France, COVÉA is what is referred to as a Société de groupe d’Assurance Mutuelle (mutual insurance group). This enables mutual insurance groups which, while maintaining their identities, may pool services and capital given that, by definition, mutual insurance companies cannot go public to raise funds.