April 5, 2011
The three day Certification Hearing in Riazi et al v. The Board of Education of School District No. 39 (Vancouver) was concluded on June 2, 2010. On April 5, 2011, the Supreme Court of British Columbia released the Reasons for Judgment of Madam Justice Dardi. To read Her Ladyship's Reasons for Judgment, please click here.
To read the article in The Vancouver Sun, click here; for the article in The Province, click here.
Poyner Baxter LLP has a second proposed class action naming 26 school boards with respect to tuition fees paid for summer school. The 26 school boards are listed below.
June 30, 2010
Poyner Baxter LLP has launched a second suit in the B.C. Supreme Court against 26 boards of education seeking the recovery of tuition fees paid for summer school programs. The boards named in the proposed Class Action are:
The Board of Education of School District No. 5 (South East Kootenay)
The Board of Education of School District No. 20 (Kootenay-Columbia)
The Board of Education of School District No. 22 (Vernon)
The Board of Education of School District No. 33 (Chilliwack)
The Board of Education of School District No. 34 (Abbotsford)
The Board of Education of School District No. 35 (Langley)
The Board of Education of School District No. 36 (Surrey)
The Board of Education of School District No. 37 (Delta)
The Board of Education of School District No. 38 (Richmond)
The Board of Education of School District No. 40 (New Westminster)
The Board of Education of School District No. 41 (Burnaby)
The Board of Education of School District No. 42 (Maple Ridge - Pitt Meadows)
The Board of Education of School District No. 43 (Coquitlam)
The Board of Education of School District No. 44 (North Vancouver)
The Board of Education of School District No. 45 (West Vancouver)
The Board of Education of School District No. 47 (Powell River)
The Board of Education of School District No. 57 (Prince George)
The Board of Education of School District No. 61 (Greater Victoria)
The Board of Education of School District No. 67 (Okanagan-Skaha)
The Board of Education of School District No. 72 (Campbell River)
The Board of Education of School District No. 75 (Mission)
The Board of Education of School District No. 78 (Fraser-Cascade)
The Board of Education of School District No. 79 (Cowichan Valley)
The Board of Education of School District No. 82 (Coast Mountains),
The Board of Education of School District No. 83 (North Okanagan-Shuswap)
The Board of Education of School District No. 92 (Nisga'a)
August 23, 2009
Poyner Baxter has launched a suit in B.C. Supreme Court against the Vancouver board of education seeking the return of the fees paid by a single family before the province deemed the charges illegal in 2007. The amount in question is just $274, but lawyer Jim Poyner plans to expand the suit into a class action on behalf of the hundreds or thousands of families who paid summer school fees in Vancouver between 2004 and 2006. To read the Statement of Claim, please click here.
Jim Poyner plans to start similar suits against the other dozen or so school districts in the province that have charged fees. Both North and West Vancouver are on the list.
According to Jim Poyner's numbers, North Vancouver School District 44 levied some $2.6 million from families for summer school courses offered between 2003 and 2006, while West Vancouver took in close to $700,000 over the same period. "What the school districts have been doing is against the law," said Poyner. "I can't see a defence to it, quite frankly, and I've been at this business for over 40 years."
In 2007, then-Minister of Education Shirley Bond said school districts that had been charging for summer courses needed for graduation had been breaking the law. Bond ordered school districts to refund parents for fees collected in 2007 -- a sum estimated at about $10 million -- and promised the province would compensate the districts for the expense.
None of the fees charged in the years prior to that have been refunded, however. It is those that Poyner is going after. And Poyner has no intention of stopping there. If his action succeeds, he plans to launch a second wave of lawsuits seeking the reimbursement of all school fees charged prior to Bond's declaration.
To read the full text of the North Shore News articles regarding this issue, click here for the August 23, 2009 article and here for the article of August 12, 2009.
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