Canadian Judge Appoints Law Firms for QuadrigaCX Customers

The Supreme Court of Nova Scotia has appointed Canadian law firms Miller Thomson and Cox & Palmer to represent 115,000 customers of Canadian crypto exchange QuadrigaCX in coming proceedings. Supreme Court Judge Michael Wood ruled the same in a court filing on Tuesday, Feb. 19. He rendered a decision that Miller Thomson and Cox & Palmer lead counsel representing the committee of users of major cryptocurrency exchange of Canada QuadrigaCX. The law firms stood against fellow Canadian law firms Bennett Jones/McInnes Cooper and Osler, Hoskin and Harcourt/Patterson in a hearing in Halifax held last week.

There were more than a dozen lawyers who were struggling to represent the customers of Exchange QuadrigaCX. But Wood underlined that the law firms Miller Thomson and Cox & Palmer have “extensive insolvency and [Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act] experience,” and Miller Thomson exclusively have experience with cryptocurrency-related proceedings. Both will be responsible for “managing communications with users; acting as user liaison for the monitor [Ernst & Young]; advocating for user interests before the court; identify[ing] potential conflicting interest amongst users, and advocating for user privacy.” He also added that the proposal of the firm was “thought out carefully with a view to minimizing costs.”

The filing further explained:
“Representative counsel can make the proceeding more efficient and cost effective for all parties by providing a clear mechanism for communicating with the stakeholders and avoiding a multiplicity of potentially conflicting retainers.”

Justice Wood noted that the next hearing is scheduled for March 5, 2019. He also stated that he “expect[s] that representative counsel, the Monitor and the Applicants should be able to come to an agreement on most, if not all, of the terms of the order which could then be presented to the Court for consideration.” In the next hearing Quadriga and its court-appointed monitor, Ernst & Young (EY) will update the court on their progress to recover or otherwise raise $196 million which is a total sum that exchanges its users.

Ersnt & Young had reportedly released a report dubbed as “First Report of the Monitor” which remarked that “on February 6, 2019, Quadriga inadvertently transferred 103 bitcoins valued at approximately $468,675 to Quadriga cold wallets.”
Quadriga has intentionally did not access its cold wallets as its recently deceased found Gerald Cotten who was only responsible for the corresponding keys and the wallets.