Jonathan Ptak*
Partner
Practice Area
Expertise
Appellate Court Practice, Commercial Litigation, Professional Negligence and Insurance Litigation
Called to the Bar
Ontario, 2002
Jonathan Ptak is a partner in the firm’s class action group. His practice focuses on class proceedings and commercial litigation. He regularly appears before Courts at all levels in Ontario, including the Superior Court, Divisional Court and Court of Appeal.
Jon is recognized by Lexpert, Chambers Canada and Best Lawyers as a leading practitioner in class proceedings. He was appointed to sit on the Ontario Class Action Bench-Bar Liaison Committee. He has acted as counsel in a wide variety of class actions, involving product liability, medical implants, consumer protection, employment law (overtime class actions), public health (infectious disease outbreaks), securities misrepresentation, pension matters, Crown liability and other matters.
He is co-lead counsel in Heyder v. Canada, in which a settlement was reached for $900 million involving alleged sexual misconduct in the Canadian Armed Forces and Department of National Defence. It is one of the largest class action settlements in Canadian history.
He has been involved in many other of Canada’s largest settlements, including the settlement with Ernst & Young LLP in the Sino-Forest class action for $117 million, which is the largest settlement with an auditor in Canada.
He was also lead counsel in Rosen v BMO, which was the first overtime misclassification case to be certified in Ontario (and not overturned on appeal), and was settled.
His commercial litigation practice includes complex commercial disputes, pension litigation as well as other matters.
A partial list of Jon’s class action cases is appended below under the Experience tab.
Prior to joining Koskie Minsky in 2002, Jon practiced at a large international law firm. He was also previously a caseworker and division leader at Downtown Legal Services (a community legal clinic) doing criminal defence work.
Jon obtained his Bachelor of Laws from the University of Toronto, where he won numerous mooting prizes. He also spent a year abroad in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia at a public health agency focusing on law reform.
Jon speaks and publishes regularly on issues related to class actions and commercial litigation.
*Practising through a professional corporation
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Experience
- Bell Canada Indexation of Pension Plan Class Action (cost of living adjustment)
- Enterprise, National and Alamo Rent-A-Car Class Action (overtime claim)
- Roundup Class Action (significant exposure to Roundup)
- Ontario Training Schools (abuse in Ontario Training Schools)
- Victims of Ralph Rowe (aboriginal youth abused by Ralph Rowe)
- Indian Hospital (Indigenous people abused in Indian Hospitals)
- Heyder v. CAF (sexual assault, sexual harassment and gender-based discrimination in the military)
- Lapple v. HMQ (lockdowns in correctional institutions)
- Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. (securities misrepresentation)
- Stryker Implants (product liability – hip implants)
- Sino-Forest (securities misrepresentation)
- Rosen v. BMO (overtime claim)
- Brown v. CIBC (overtime claim)
- Papassay v. HMQ (Children’s Aid)
- Atlantic Power (securities misrepresentation)
- Biomet (product liability – hip implant)
- Smith & Nephew (product liability – hip implant)
- Exposure to Tuberculosis #1 (infectious disease outbreak)
- Exposure to Tuberculosis #2 (infectious disease outbreak)
- Caponi v. Canada Life (pension case)
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Education
LL.B., 2000, University of Toronto
B.A. (Hon.), 1996, McGill University
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Memberships / Affiliations
Member, The Advocates’ Society
Member, Ontario Bar Association
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Jonathan's Publications
- "Settlements under the Class Proceedings Act, 1992: Protecting absent class members and advancing the goals of the Act for the OBA Conference entitled "The Essentials of Settlement: From Offers to Handshakes" held on Dec 10, 2008.
- "Aggregate Damages under the Class Proceedings Act, 1992: Ensuring a Wrong Doesn't Elude a Remedy" for the 5th Osgoode Symposium on Class Actions held in April, 2008.
