Costs awarded in Charter challenge

Category: Notable Cases
Posted on by Mercedes Perez

Mercedes and lawyer Marshall Swadron successfully argued that costs should be awarded in an unsuccessful public interest constitutional challenge. Costs in the amount of $100,000 were awarded to the Empowerment Council in its Charter challenge to the Box B and community treatment order provisions in Ontario’s Mental Health Act. This was a notable accomplishment given that “[a]warding costs to an unsuccessful applicant even in cases where there are important public interest dimensions is “highly unusual” and only permitted in “very rare cases”.   Read the Superior Court’s decision here.