On Thursday (October 23rd) the first reports from the Claims Administrators were filed and made public on the websites of the administrators/monitors. (FTI Consulting for Imperial Tobacco, EY for Rothmans, Benson & Hedges, and Deloitte for JTI-Macdonald).
These reports provide "substantially the same" updates on the same two bits of information: (a) progress in the filing of claims in the Pan Canadian and the Quebec Class Action cases and (b) the establishment of a protocol for Ontario and Quebec courts to work together on the file.
They remind that claimants in the Quebec class action have 10 months left to file their claims and that those in the Pan-Canadian claims which cover all Canadians but address illnesses diagnosed at a different time frame than the Quebec Class Action have 23 more months.
As of mid-October, a little over 400 claims had been received. Epidemiological projections of the number potential claimants exceeded 280,000 individuals. A media campaign to reach potential claimants is now scheduled to start on November 5th.
