On Friday, the Superior Court confirmed that the City and Town have a legal right to communicate with their citizens and class members about the potential consequences of a successful action against them in the Bingo lawsuit.

Windsor and Tecumseh have been engaged in an awareness-raising program intended to advise class members and citizens about the possible impact of the class action bingo lawsuit, which could cost Windsor $70 million and Tecumseh $7 million or more.

This past Monday the plaintiffs’ lawyers in the class action bingo lawsuit asked the court to prohibit the municipalities from any communications about the class action during the 120-day opt-out period.

In response to the plaintiffs’ lawyers’ objections, the Court has made a limited order which directs that no further information should be distributed about the opt-out campaign, other than what already exists.

The website established by the municipalities is now to add live links to the class action lawyers’ websites, and has done so.

In making this order, the Court accepted that the intention of the City and Town’s campaign was to inform potential claimants of these consequences, but expressed concerns about the breadth of the campaign.

The City and Town are reviewing the court’s direction, but respect the decision and will abide by it unless a higher court directs otherwise.

In the meantime, consistent with the ruling, the municipalities will continue their existing messages subject to the direction given by the court about new information, while they study the decision.

Both the plaintiffs and defendants continue to maintain their existing web-sites, with information about the class action bingo lawsuit, at HelpWindsorTecumseh.com, windsorbingoclassaction.ca, and tecumsehbingoclassaction.ca.