What To Do When You Believe You Are a Victim of Medical Malpractice

What To Do When You Believe You Are a Victim of Medical Malpractice

Author: Kris Bonn

There is no question that the Canadian healthcare system provides excellent medical care to most people. However, according to the Canadian Patient Safety Institute, in our Canadian healthcare system there is a death from preventable patient harm every 13 minutes and 14 seconds. One out of 18 hospital visits result in preventable harm. These incidents generate an additional $2.75 billion in healthcare treatment costs very year.[1]

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New Torts Recognized by the Ontario Courts

New Torts Recognized by the Ontario Courts

Author: Ryan Alkenbrack

“Tort Law” is a broad category of law that includes the majority of civil lawsuits in Ontario. Types of cases that fall into this category include intentional torts such as assault, battery, or false imprisonment, and negligence-based torts, such as personal injury that results unintentionally in a motor vehicle collision, a slip and fall on an icy sidewalk, or a dog attack. This area of law is concerned with compensating victims of wrongdoing and is distinct from other areas of law you may be familiar with, such as criminal law, wills and estates, real estate, family law or contract law.

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Injured by a negligent driver? What you need to know.

Injured by a negligent driver? What you need to know.

In Ontario, we have the Superior Court of Justice that hears all types of cases. One of the most common cases in the Superior Court of Justice involve injuries suffered by innocent people by negligent and careless drivers. However, when an innocently injured person seeks to be compensated for what was negligently taken from them, they are in for a shock. In Ontario, if a negligent driver causes a serious injury to an innocent person and that injured person cannot return to work, the law limits the injured person’s loss of income to just 70% of their income losses before the case gets to trial.

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Empty seats in a civil jury box in a courthouse

Now Is The Time To Eliminate Civil Jury Trials For Most Personal Injury Cases: A Call For Change.

As I write this, Ontario is in the midst of a third wave of the Covid-19 virus – this time with more contagious variants that are infecting younger people. Ontario is working on getting vaccines into arms but this takes time and vaccines. On April 7, 2021, the Ontario Government declared a third state of emergency and a Stay-At-Home order along with strict lockdown restrictions.

What does this have to do with civil jury trials?

Over the past 14 months, NO civil jury trials have taken place. I personally had one civil jury trial cancelled due to the pandemic. Many, if not most, personal injury lawyers are in the same boat – civil jury trials being cancelled. This is not fair to our clients who have been waiting years to get their cases resolved. Over the time of the pandemic, our court administration has worked very hard to bring the court process into the 21st century and we now have the ability to conduct virtual civil trials. But. there's a catch. These virtual civil trials involve only a judge.

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A calendar and hourglass with blue sand indicating time running out.

What Is A Limitation Period And What Does It Mean For Civil Claims In Ontario?

Most people are familiar with the term "statute of limitations", but what does it mean? The concept is that after a certain period of time following an event, incident, breach of contract, medical malpractice, injury, accident or collision there is a limited period of time within which a person can bring a legal claim. Civil claims are provincial matters. In Ontario, the deadline to bring a legal action is governed by the Limitations Act, 2002. The basic limitation period in Ontario is two years. This means that a person must file a claim with the civil court within 2 years of the event.

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