When will a plaintiff have to pay the notice costs of a class action?

The normal expectation is that the representative plaintiff will bear the costs of notice, as Nordheimer J. observed in Markle v. Toronto (City), [2004] O.J. No. 3024 (S.C.J.) at para. 5: 5 In terms of the costs of notice to the class members, and recognizing that this is always a matter of discretion, the normal order is that the representative plaintiff has to bear the costs of that notice. I say that is the normal order because it is the representative plaintiff that seeks certification and one of the consequences of certification is the requirement under section 17 of the Act that notice be given to the class members. It is also the responsibility of the representative plaintiff, upon certification, to have produced a plan for the proceeding that sets out a workable method of advancing the proceeding on behalf of the class and of notifying class members of the proceeding. The burden of notice therefore clearly falls on the representative plaintiff. This general rule is not without possible exceptions. For example, if a defendant admitted liability and the class proceeding was certified just to determine the relief to which the class members were entitled, then that might be a case where the defendant would be ordered to bear the cost of the notice programme. There may be other situations which would warrant a departure from the general rule. This case is not one of those exceptions, however. I would also note that the class is estimated at approximately 600 potential members. If notice were to be given by mail to each member of the class, it would not then represent a significant expense for the representative plaintiffs.