Causation is the second element a plaintiff must prove in an Ontario medical malpractice claim, after standard of care and before damages. The plaintiff must show that the defendant’s negligence caused the injury, ordinarily by satisfying the “but for” test: but for the negligent act or omission, the injury would not have occurred. The Supreme Court of Canada confirmed this approach in Clements v Clements, 2012 SCC 32, [2012] 2 SCR 181, while recognizing a limited “material contribution to risk” exception in narrow circumstances.
In medical cases, causation is often the most contested element. A plaintiff who proves a clear breach of the standard of care may still lose at trial if expert evidence cannot bridge the gap between the breach and the injury. Lost-chance arguments, delayed-diagnosis fact patterns, and cases involving multiple potential causes raise some of the hardest causation questions in Canadian tort law.
Posts tagged Causation analyze how Ontario courts have approached these issues across obstetrical, oncology, emergency, and surgical fact patterns, including appellate decisions that shape how trial judges instruct themselves on the test.
St. Catharines Standard coverage of the April 2019 jury verdict in Woods v Jackiewicz, an $11.5 million obstetric negligence verdict for cerebral palsy.
Paul Cahill won an $11.5 million jury verdict against an obstetrician whose failure to refer to a perinatologist caused a catastrophic cerebral palsy birth injury.
Why expert selection drives outcomes in Ontario medical malpractice cases. Paul Cahill on finding the right expert from an OTLA webinar.
Paul Cahill settled a wrongful death claim against a family physician who failed to provide the HCC surveillance that hepatitis B carriers require.
Paul Cahill settled a laboratory negligence claim where a failure to properly test tuberculosis susceptibilities led to vertebral collapse and spinal surgery.
Paul Cahill settled a surgical negligence claim where ankle fracture surgery proceeded before the patient’s anticoagulation was properly reversed.
Paul Cahill settled a wrongful death claim after hospital staff failed to connect oxygen tubing to a patient’s CPAP machine, leading to cardiac arrest.
Paul Cahill settled a medical malpractice claim involving permanent vestibular damage from unmonitored outpatient gentamicin therapy.
The role of legal nurse consultants in medical malpractice cases, from records review to expert identification. From a 2015 Connect MLX seminar.
Paul Cahill settled a wrongful death claim involving a misplaced breathing tube and a delayed anesthesiology response in the emergency room.
Paul Cahill settled a surgical negligence claim arising from an aortic injury during a laparoscopic nephrectomy that caused spinal cord ischemia.
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