If you or a loved one was seriously harmed by medical negligence, you need a lawyer with the trial record to back you up. Paul Cahill is a Law Society of Ontario Certified Specialist in Civil Litigation with a track record of trial verdicts, including an $11.5 million jury award for an Ontario family.
Paul represents Ontario patients and families harmed by medical negligence. Each practice area below reflects a category of case Paul has built specific expertise in, with the trial readiness and expert relationships these cases demand.
When the first day becomes a lifetime of harm.
A preventable injury at birth reshapes a family permanently. Paul has built much of his practice representing Ontario children and families harmed at birth, and his $11.5M jury verdict in a birth injury case is among the largest of its kind in the province.
Learn About Birth Injury CasesJury verdict in an Ontario birth injury case. One of the largest of its kind in the province.
Wrong-site surgery, retained surgical items, anesthesia errors, organ or nerve damage, post-operative infections, and other catastrophic surgical mistakes.
Learn MoreCancer, heart attack, sepsis, and other conditions missed or diagnosed too late, when earlier recognition would have changed the outcome.
Learn MoreTriage errors, hallway medicine failures, premature discharge, missed cardiac events, and other harms caused by emergency department negligence.
Learn MoreStrokes missed at triage, dismissed as migraine or vertigo, or treated too late to be effective. Time-window cases where minutes change everything.
Learn MoreWrong drug, wrong dose, drug interactions missed, allergies overlooked, and high-risk medications not properly monitored. Errors anywhere in the prescribing chain.
Learn MoreInadequate staffing, hospital-acquired infections, falls, equipment failures, communication breakdowns, and other systemic institutional failures.
Learn More
Paul is a Toronto medical malpractice lawyer who actually tries cases. That is the difference clients feel, and the difference that physician insurers respect.
Paul is a Partner at Davidson Cahill Morrison LLP, an established boutique civil litigation firm with offices in Toronto, Huntsville and Bowmanville. His practice is devoted to representing patients and families across Ontario in medical negligence and serious personal injury claims, from birth injury and surgical errors to misdiagnosis, stroke, and emergency room delay.
Recognized by the Law Society of Ontario as a Certified Specialist in Civil Litigation, Paul has built his practice on a willingness to take cases to verdict when defendants will not offer fair value to settle. He has secured an $11.5 million jury verdict for a child born with cerebral palsy, and a successful trial verdict against a negligent emergency room physician in the death of a 34 year old mother of four. Other Ontario lawyers retain him as trial counsel on the most complex medical malpractice and serious personal injury claims, a peer signal that matters in a bar where most plaintiff lawyers do not try cases at all.
Most cases settle. But they only settle for fair value when the defendant believes you are genuinely prepared to go to trial.
Beyond the trial work, Paul is a past Director of the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association (2020 to 2023) and former Chair of its Medical Malpractice Section (2019 to 2020). He has been listed in Best Lawyers in Canada for Medical Negligence and Personal Injury Litigation every year since 2021.
Medical malpractice claims in Ontario are vigorously defended. The lawyer you retain, and what other lawyers and judges think of that lawyer, can change the outcome of your case. These are the recognitions Paul has earned over a career of trying medical negligence cases to verdict.
Fewer than 1% of Ontario lawyers hold the Law Society's Certified Specialist designation. It requires demonstrated trial experience, specialized expertise, and substantial responsibility for complex matters, and is renewed only on continued evidence of excellence.
Selection is based on confidential peer review by other practising lawyers in the same area of law, and cannot be paid for or applied for.
View profile on BestLawyers.comPast Director of the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association and former Chair of the OTLA Medical Malpractice Section (2019 to 2020), helping shape policy and practice for plaintiff lawyers across the province.
Retained by other Ontario lawyers as trial counsel on the most complex medical malpractice and serious personal injury claims. A signal of standing among peers who try cases for a living.
Tried medical malpractice cases to verdict, including an $11.5 million jury award in a cerebral palsy case, and a successful trial against an emergency room physician for the death of a 34 year old mother of four.
Some of the most common beliefs about medical malpractice in Ontario are simply wrong, and they cut both ways: pushing some people toward hopeless claims and others away from good ones. Here are the misunderstandings I see most often, set against how the law actually works, from what counts as negligence to limitation periods, College complaints, causation, and the cap on damages.
A new report finds one in 10 admitted patients now spend more than 48 hours waiting in the emergency department, and roughly 16,000 died while waiting for care last year. But a broken system is not the same as a winnable malpractice claim. Here is where an ER delay can cross into negligence in Ontario, and where it cannot.
Most people who reach out to a medical malpractice lawyer have never done it before. These are the questions Paul hears most often. If yours is not below, ask it directly. There is no fee for an initial conversation, and no obligation to proceed.
A medical malpractice case in Ontario requires three things. First, that a healthcare provider failed to meet the standard of care: what a reasonably competent practitioner would have done in the same circumstances. Second, that this failure caused or materially contributed to your injury. Third, that the injury produced compensable damages.
Not every bad outcome is malpractice. Some complications are foreseeable risks of even careful treatment. But many bad outcomes are caused by preventable failures, and the only way to know which category your situation falls into is to have it reviewed. Paul reviews every potential case personally and tells you honestly whether it warrants further investigation.
Paul takes medical malpractice cases on a contingency fee basis. That means you pay no legal fees unless and until you recover compensation through a settlement or judgment. The contingency fee is set as a percentage of the recovery and is explained in writing before any work begins.
Disbursements (the substantial out-of-pocket costs of expert reports, medical records, and court fees) are typically advanced by the firm and recovered from the eventual recovery. There is no fee for an initial consultation, and no obligation to proceed after one.
Ontario's Limitations Act, 2002 generally requires civil claims to be commenced within two years of when you discovered, or reasonably should have discovered, the injury and its likely cause. The limitation period is critical. If you miss it, the claim is generally barred regardless of its merit.
There are important exceptions. The limitation period for a minor child's own claim is generally suspended until they turn 18. Discoverability rules can also extend the start of the clock if the injury or its cause was not reasonably knowable at the time. Even when the formal clock has not started running, earlier review is always better. Records can be lost. Witnesses move on. Evidence degrades. The first months after an injury are when the case is at its strongest.
Most medical malpractice cases take three to five years from start to resolution. Complex cases, particularly birth injury and hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy claims, can take longer. The timeline reflects the depth of investigation required: obtaining records, retaining expert witnesses, exchanging evidence with the defence, conducting examinations for discovery, and either negotiating settlement or preparing for trial.
Paul will give you realistic expectations at the outset and keep you informed throughout. Cases that resolve quickly usually do so because the evidence is overwhelming. Cases that take longer usually do so because they are being properly built.
The standard of care is the level of skill and care that a reasonably competent practitioner in the same specialty would have provided in the same circumstances. It is not a standard of perfection. A doctor can make a difficult judgment call, even one that turns out poorly, without falling below the standard of care.
What the standard required, and whether it was met, is established through expert evidence from peers in the same field. The defence will produce its own experts, often disagreeing. Resolving those disagreements is what trial advocacy is for.
Most medical malpractice cases resolve before trial through settlement. But the credible threat of trial is what produces meaningful settlements. A lawyer who is unwilling to take a case to verdict often gets weak settlement offers. Paul prepares every case as if it will be tried, which is a meaningful part of why his cases settle on terms his clients are satisfied with.
You should be prepared for the possibility of testifying at trial. Most clients who go through the process find it less daunting than expected once they understand what to expect. Paul prepares clients carefully, well in advance, so the courtroom is never an unfamiliar room.
Damages in Ontario medical malpractice claims can include past and future medical expenses, the cost of attendant care and rehabilitation, loss of past and future income, loss of earning capacity, the cost of home and vehicle modifications, future care needs, and pain and suffering (subject to a cap set by Canadian common law, currently around $450,000).
Family members can also bring claims under the Family Law Act for loss of guidance, care, and companionship, and for the value of services they provide to the injured person. In catastrophic cases, particularly those involving lifelong care needs, total damages can exceed several million dollars.
Three reasons. First, the legal standard is higher and the proof of causation is more technical, often requiring multiple specialist experts to establish what reasonable care looked like and what its absence cost the patient. Second, defendants are vigorously defended by well-resourced organizations: doctors by the Canadian Medical Protective Association (CMPA), and hospitals by the Healthcare Insurance Reciprocal of Canada (HIROC). Both have substantial resources and a long-standing practice of defending strong cases at trial.
Third, settlement offers are not freely given. Many lawyers decline these cases because of the cost and complexity. Paul takes them because they are the cases most worth taking.