Court of Appeal for Ontario

The Court of Appeal for Ontario is the province’s highest court and the final domestic appellate court for most Ontario medical malpractice decisions, given the rarity of leave being granted to the Supreme Court of Canada. The Court of Appeal hears appeals from final orders of the Superior Court of Justice (other than family law matters) and from select decisions of the Divisional Court.

In medical malpractice litigation, the Court of Appeal’s role is doubly important. Its decisions are binding on every trial-level judge in Ontario, and its analysis of standard of care, causation, expert evidence, and damages frames how the trial bench approaches these issues. Recent decisions have refined the application of the Clements v Clements causation framework, addressed the limits of permissible expert opinion under White Burgess Langille Inman v Abbott and Haliburton Co, and continued the appellate court’s long line of decisions on the Reibl v Hughes informed consent test.

Posts tagged Court of Appeal for Ontario analyze the court’s medical malpractice decisions and what they mean for trial practice in this province.

Navy title card reading "Brown v Meaney: The limits of clinical judgment, affirmed on appeal" from paulcahill.ca, a Paul Cahill case comment.

Brown v Meaney: Clinical Judgment, Informed Consent, and Commonsense Causation on Appeal

The Court of Appeal dismisses the appeal in Brown v Meaney, upholding findings that two pediatric neurologists breached the standard of care and the duty to obtain informed consent when they abandoned a pyridoxine trial in an infant with a rare epilepsy. The decision affirms that a defensible first impression does not excuse the failure to revisit it, and that causation need not be proven with scientific precision.

June 19, 2026