B.C. judge rejects expert in $1.3B lawsuit against TD Asset Management for bias against big banks

A B.C. Supreme Court judge says a well-known financial critic can’t give expert evidence in a $1.3-billion class action lawsuit against TD Bank’s asset management firm because of his alleged bias against big Canadian banks.

In a decision released this week, Justice Gordon Funt acknowledged it’s “quite rare” to rule a proposed expert’s evidence inadmissible.

But he concluded that Larry Bates — author of Beat the Bank: The Canadian Guide to Simply Successful Investing — has a cause, or “philosophical hostility,” that renders him unable to be fair and objective in relation to an ongoing claim against TD Asset Management.

“I find that Mr. L.