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Alberta Class Action

March 17, 2012 permalink

A class-action lawsuit on behalf of Alberta foster children is approaching a legal deadline. Class members who do not wish to be included have until May 4 to opt out.

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Plaintiffs have until May 4 to opt out of foster child suit

A long-running class-action lawsuit suing the Alberta government on behalf of foster children is nearing another milestone on its long legal road. Public notices appeared across Alberta this week telling potential plaintiffs of an approaching May 4 deadline to opt out of the lawsuit.

The suit is being launched on be-half of children taken into care by provincial authorities between July 1966 and Feb. 2008.

One of the lawyers behind the action estimated as many as 20,000 people could be eligible to join.

The suit isn't claiming abuse com-mitted while children were in the care of provincial authorities.

Rather, the lawsuit alleges provincial authorities were negligent for not pursuing civil damages or restitution on behalf of children who suffered sexual abuse or physical injury at the hands of others prior to being taken into care.

"This lawsuit is for everybody who could have had a lawsuit or could have applied for victim-of-crime compensation," said Edmonton lawyer Robert Lee.

The suit began with a statement of claim filed in 2004 by a 39-year-old woman who now lives in Calgary.

She is one of three plaintiffs who now represent the class of victims, however large it may become.

The upcoming deadline is to al-low anyone who wants to sue the government as an individual to drop out of the class-action suit.

Source: Calgary Herald

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