The Family Law Act is the Ontario statute that, through section 61, gives certain family members a statutory right to claim damages when a person is injured or killed by the fault of another. These derivative claims, often called Family Law Act claims, are a standard component of serious medical malpractice and wrongful death actions, brought alongside the injured person’s own claim or the estate’s claim.
Section 61 entitles the spouse, children, grandchildren, parents, grandparents, and siblings of the injured or deceased person to recover for losses such as the value of guidance, care, and companionship, the value of nursing and household services provided to the injured person, and out-of-pocket expenses including funeral costs. These claims are subject to the limitation framework of the Limitations Act, 2002, and the assessment of guidance, care, and companionship in particular is frequently contested.
Posts tagged Family Law Act analyze Ontario decisions involving section 61 claims by family members in medical malpractice and wrongful death cases.
A settlement on behalf of the family of a man admitted with a heart attack who died overnight after his telemetry alarms went unanswered by hospital staff.
The Ontario Court of Appeal upheld the trial verdict in Shaw Estate v Handler, affirming the standard of care to recall a patient after critical CT findings.
Ontario midwifery negligence case study: failure to escalate to obstetrical consultation, postpartum hemorrhage, emergency hysterectomy, infertility at 30.
Alberta court awards over $16.5 million to child who suffered quadruple amputation after delayed recognition of bacterial superinfection in pediatric RSV.
When inadequate vancomycin monitoring produces a preventable death. The standard of care, the multi-provider liability picture, and the legal framework.
A settlement on behalf of the family of a 39-year-old mother of two whose breast cancer was diagnosed too late after a missed opportunity to investigate.
A 12-day Brampton trial led to a finding that an ER physician’s failure to call a patient back after new diagnostic information caused her death.
Paul Cahill won a trial verdict in Hacopian-Armen v Mahmoud where Justice Brown found a gynecologist negligently failed to biopsy and missed a curable cancer.
Paul Cahill won a trial verdict in O’Neill-Renouf v Ibrahim where Justice Baltman found a urologist negligently injured the obturator nerve during a TVT procedure.
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 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 wrongful death claim involving a misplaced breathing tube and a delayed anesthesiology response in the emergency room.
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