Appellate Practice

Counsel from Hunter Litigation Chambers appear regularly in the British Columbia Court of Appeal and Supreme Court of Canada and occasionally in the Federal Court of Appeal. Our senior lawyers are experienced appellate counsel and can provide specialized appellate services to lawyers whose practice is primarily at the trial level.

Some of the recent appellate cases our counsel have handled include:

• Attorney General of Canada v Imperial Tobacco Canada Limited (Supreme Court of Canada, 2011), a decision dealing with the circumstances when the Federal Government may be joined as a third party in provincial cost-recovery litigation

• Sun-Rype Products Ltd. v. Archer Daniels Midland Company (British Columbia Court of Appeal, 2011), an important class action decision in which the Court held that indirect purchasers could not be certified as plaintiffs in a price-fixing claim

• R v Cunningham (Supreme Court of Canada, 2010), concerning the role of the Court when counsel seeks to withdraw from representation of a client

• R v Basi (Supreme Court of Canada, 2009), restoring the protection of informer privilege.

• Re Inmet Mining Corp. (British Columbia Court of Appeal, 2009), the leading case on the duties of a lawyer to advise the client of the basis on which legal fees are to be charged.

• Western Forest Products Limited v. British Columbia (British Columbia Court of Appeal, 2009), a successful appeal of a challenge to a decision of the Forest Appeals Commission

• British Columbia v. Imperial Tobacco Canada Limited (British Columbia Court of Appeal, 2009), a successful appeal sustaining a third party notice against the Federal Government in the provincial health care costs litigation

• Hayes Forest Services Limited v. Weyerhaeuser Company Limited (British Columbia Court of Appeal, 2008), a decision that set out the appropriate test for judicial review of an arbitration award

• Maximum Ventures Inc. v. De Graaf (British Columbia Court of Appeal, 2007), a decision concerning common interest privilege in relation to the production of documents in a commercial dispute

• Gold v. Mountain Equipment Co-Op, (Federal Court of Appeal, 2006), a patent infringement case successfully defended at trial and appeal

• Knight v. Imperial Tobacco Ltd. (British Columbia Court of Appeal, 2006), an appeal from the certification of a class action under the Class Proceedings Act.

In addition to conducting a wide range of cases as appellate counsel, our lawyers have been active in writing and teaching on appellate practice. One of our senior lawyers is the author of "Conducting a Civil Appeal in British Columbia" (Carswell, 1995) and taught appellate advocacy at the University of British Columbia Law School for 14 years. Our counsel are regular participants at Continuing Legal Education programs on appellate advocacy and have written extensively on oral and written appellate practice.