Bell fails to get lawsuit dropped over nonexistent 911 service

This is a case of a lawsuit that will simply not go away, and for good reason.

Yellowknife resident James Anderson filed a $6-million class-action lawsuit back in 2007 against Bell Mobility saying he was being charged $0.75 a month for 911 service when there is no 911 service in his area. Bell Mobility has been to court twice and failed both times to get this dropped.

In a court session on Tuesday in Yellowknife, Bell took the side that they never agreed to provide 911 service. The company said there was no mention of providing the emergency service in its contract with cellphone customers. I guess this kind of action does not come to Yellowknife very much and didn’t impress the judges. Justice Jean Côté told Bell “You jolly well billed for it”… the next stage of this lawsuit will be to go over all the comments from both parties and see if this qualifies for a class-action lawsuit.

After the hearings Anderson said “I was very satisfied with the outcome today. To me, it’s a very simple argument, but I understand that with the legalities that there are going be technical arguments that surface that have to be dealt with as well. But it all adds clarity, I think, to the case in the end.”

Keith Landy, Anderson’s lawyer, said simply wants this to be over with and justice to be served: “I can only hope that for those who are continuing to pay this monthly fee, that someone at Bell Mobility will recognize that maybe this is something they should be addressing sooner rather than later”.

You would think that the bad press involved would outway the $6 million price tag. Perhaps this will open up a whole industry of events once the decision is final.

Via: CBC