http://www.cuminggillespie.com

The Notification of the Certification of the Vioxx National Class Action was distributed in March 2010. All current clients should have received this letter. If you did not receive a copy of the Notice, a copy is contained herein (90kb Word Doc).

Additionally, all Alberta Cardiologists were notified by mail and instructed to advise their patients and potential claimants of the Notice.

On September 30, 2009, the San Diego Court appointed a receiver with respect to distribution of the seized funds in the First National Bank of San Diego. The receiver is currently reviewing all claims. We hope that he will have a decision with respect to distribution in the next 3 months.

For class members who signed up with us prior to the Opt-In / Opt-Out process, we are now wrapping up our Assurance Fund Application process. We have advised clients with outstanding applications that the deadline for returning them is January 30, 2009, and shortly thereafter we will be seeking a meeting with the Law Society of Alberta to discuss where the applications are at.

Following an Order from Justice Rooke seeking the assistance of the Court in San Diego in paying out traceable claims that had already been submitted and then paying the remainder of the funds into the action in Alberta for the benefit of the Class, and our subsequently successful application in San Diego, there was an appeal of Justice Rooke’s order filed by Clint Docken on behalf of four defendants, Skyward Management Inc., Victor Bauman, 1037149 Alberta Ltd. operating as Cedar Management and Stan Remin. We are currently finalizing our appeal Factum in this matter, and the appeal will be heard in April of 2010.

We have also been working on preparing materials to oppose Summary Dismissal Applications by the Financial Institution Defendants. We have cross-examined the witnesses that they had swear affidavits in support of their motions, and will be filing briefs with respect to same early in the New Year. The Application will be heard in February 2010. If we are successful, then we will proceed to Examinations for Discovery of the Defendant banks.

We appear to have settled a claim in Indiana which should realize $50,000.00 for the Class.

We continue to entertain settlement discussions with counsel for the defendant lawyer Dana Carlson. We will be conducting Examinations for Discovery of Mr. Carlson in December.

We will continue to update you with any news if there is anything to update you with. But please remember that we ask that you NOT CALL OR E-MAIL FOR UPDATES. It is very time consuming and expensive for us to deal with class members seeking individual updates, so please understand that if you do not receive an update for several months, this means that there is nothing newsworthy to share with you.

Thank you for your understanding.

Yours truly,
Lynn Sedgwick (for Graham McLennan)
Paralegal - Litigation
McLennan Ross LLP
Toll Free: 1-800-567-9200
Direct Line: (780) 482-9281
Fax: (780) 482-9100

The following is a status update from the regarding the Vioxx class proceedings in Ontario. The Alberta Vioxx class proceeding will be moving forward through the Ontario National Class Action.

On October 22, 2009, the Supreme Court dismissed three leave applications relating to the Ontario class action (Mignacca v. Merck). The result of the Supreme Court’s decisions is that the Ontario action is currently the only certified Vioxx class action in Canada outside of Quebec. That being said, the defendants (”Merck”) continue to challenge certification in Ontario .

In May 2008, the Saskatchewan court certified a Saskatchewan action as a national opt-out class action. However, on March 30, 2009, the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal set aside the certification order and refused to grant leave to amend the pleadings. Mr. Merchant – counsel for the proposed Saskatchewan  sought leave to the Supreme Court and was refused by its October 22, 2009 decision. This effectively ends the stand-alone Saskatchewan class action.

Status of the Ontario Class Action

On July 28, 2008, Justice Cullity certified this Ontario action as a national class action relating to Vioxx excluding Quebec. However, Merck continues to challenge certification.

The litigation battle continues in Ontario, and we will keep our clients apprised as the matter continues.

CUMING & GILLESPIE

McLENNAN ROSS LLP / CUMING & GILLESPIE LAWYERS

We are pleased to report that on June 23, 2009, Judge Miller of the United States District Court of Southern California granted our Motion to Intervene in the Interpleader Application in San Diego.  Jude Miller ordered that only directly traceable claims are to be recognized, that the aggregators with directly traceable claims will not be recognized and must await the outcome of the Canadian action and that the funds remaining after the directly traceable claims and administrative expenses are paid will be paid into court in our action.

This successful application is the result of several years work, and we are pleased with the outcome.

On another note, on or about June 12, 2009, the Notice of Class Action was sent to the last known address for any investors we had record of, other than those investors who have already signed a Contingency Fee Agreement with us.  These investors will have 60 days to Opt Into (for Non-Alberta residents), or Opt-Out of (for Alberta Residents) the Class Action.

We are also in the process of exchanging document productions with Defendants, and scheduling Examinations for Discoveries of those parties on their documents throughout the coming summer and fall.

We will continue to update you with any news if there is anything to update you with.  But please remember that we ask that you not call or e-mail for updates.  It is very time consuming and expensive for us to deal with clients seeking individual updates, so please understand that if you do not receive an update for several months, this means that there is nothing newsworthy to share with you.

Thank you for your understanding.

Yours truly,

Lynn Dechaine (for Graham McLennan)

Paralegal - Litigation
McLennan Ross LLP
Toll Free: 1-800-567-9200
Direct Line: (780) 482-9281
Fax: (780) 482-9100

An amended statement of claim for the HMS Financial case has been posted to the case page.

Cuming, Gillespie & Raymaker are very pleased to announce that our firm is currently locating and assisting Alberta claimants in the Medtronic medical devices national class action. We currently require an Alberta Health care number and other various information in order to properly assess claims for damages for both individuals and Estates of deceased individuals. Additionally, Alberta Health will be bringing forth a claim through the litigation to recover their health care costs

For further information, please contact our office directly.

McLENNAN ROSS LLP / CUMING GILLESPIE RAYMAKER

We are very pleased to report that on October 10, 2008 we received the decision from Justice Rooke certifying our action as a Class Action as well as dismissing, with some minor qualifications, the applications by the defendant Banks to strike the action against them. We see this as a major success in the action.

What does certification of the action mean? Certification is the first critical step in a Class Action lawsuit. It is what turns a regular action on behalf of only the representative plaintiffs who filed the Statement of Claim, into an action on behalf of all of the innocent investors in the HMS Scheme. This will require the Defendants to evaluate the risk against them. The claim is now a much bigger amount, as it is on behalf of the whole Plaintiff class rather than two or three individual plaintiffs. There is the possibility that the defendants, or some of the defendants, could appeal the decision. But certification of the action means that we can now begin the process of regular litigation, including exchange of documents between the parties as well as Examinations for Discovery of the major defendants in the litigation.

We thank you all for your patience. We understand how slow litigation can seem, especially in cases this complicated and involving so many parties. We ask that you continue to be patient, as, while the litigation will now be able to move forward, the next steps can still be time consuming and slow moving.

We will continue to update you with any news if there is anything to update you with. But please remember that we ask that you please not call or e-mail for updates. It is very time consuming and expensive for us to deal with clients seeking individual updates, so please understand that if you do not receive an update for several months, this means that there is nothing newsworthy to share with you.

Thank you for your understanding.

Yours truly,

Lynn Dechaine (for Graham McLennan)
Paralegal - Litigation
McLennan Ross LLP
Toll Free: 1-800-567-9200
Direct Line: (780) 482-9281
Fax: (780) 482-9100

Cuming, Gillespie & Raymaker is proud to announce that Justice Cullity of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice has appointed our co-counsel group, led by Won J. Kim of Kim Orr LLP, and James Newand of Lerners LLP as lead counsel in the Canadian national class action claim. Cuming, Gillespie & Raymaker are proud to be Alberta counsel for this matter and we are excited to proceed with seeking certification of a national class action comprising all persons implanted with Guidant Pace Maker and Defibrillator devices throughout Canada.

Cuming, Gillespie & Raymaker is proud to announce we have joined the national counsel team led by Won J. Kim of Kim Orr LLP in Toronto in the proposed national class action regarding Guidant Defibrillators.

A similar claim in the U.S. resolved on a global basis for approximately $214,000,000.00.

Should you have any inquiries with respect to Guidant Defibrillator claims please contact James Cuming of Cuming, Gillespie & Raymaker.

Cuming, Gillespie & Raymaker, and our class action partners, Kim Orr, Lerners, Rochon Genova (and others) are very, very pleased to announce that Justice Hoy of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice has declared a certified national class in the case of Peter et al v. Medtronic of Canada.

This matter will now move forward to the notice stage, and then potentially proceed to a trial on the merits of the claim.

The certification was successful in that it was determined there was an identifiable class, the class members have common issues, a national class action was the preferable procedure and, for the first time in Canadian class action jurisprudence history in a pharmaceutical action a waiver of tort was granted to the Plaintiff class. This means that if the Plaintiffs are successful in their class action they will be able to disgorge profits from the Defendant Manufacturer on the conclusion of the claim.

For further inquiries with respect to the Medtronic claim please contact James Cuming of Cuming, Gillespie & Raymaker.

The national certification hearing on Vioxx is now set for June 24-27 in Toronto, Canada.