The Critical Importance of Expert Witnesses in Medical Malpractice Cases
Practicing medical malpractice law in Canada is fraught with risk. Interestingly, medical doctors in Canada, for the most part, are not insured in the traditional sense. Rather, they are part of the Canadian Medical Protective Association (CMPA) that acts similar to an insurer. That is, if a medical doctor is sued, the CMPA will invariably defend the medical doctor and in rare cases pay a settlement to the injured plaintiffs. If the plaintiff succeeds at trial, the CMPA pays the damages on behalf of the medical doctor. The complicated funding of the CMPA is best left to another post on its own. For now, I want to highlight how risky these cases are and the need for highly qualified and appropriate expert witnesses.