The Ontario Superior Court of Justice is the trial court of general jurisdiction for civil matters in the province, and the court where almost all medical malpractice actions are heard. Claims for more than $35,000 begin in the Superior Court rather than the Small Claims Court, and the vast majority of medical malpractice cases proceed there given the complexity of the evidence and the size of the damages typically at issue.
The Superior Court hears motions, pre-trial conferences, and trials governed by the Rules of Civil Procedure, including the expert evidence requirements in Rule 53.03 and the summary judgment framework refined by the Supreme Court of Canada in Hryniak v Mauldin, 2014 SCC 7, [2014] 1 SCR 87. Appeals from the Superior Court go to the Divisional Court or directly to the Court of Appeal for Ontario depending on the nature of the order.
Posts tagged Ontario Superior Court of Justice summarize trial and motion decisions from the court in medical malpractice matters, with particular attention to how judges have applied the standard-of-care, causation, and damages frameworks to specific clinical fact patterns.
In Forget v Gibb, 2026 ONSC 626, the Ontario court dismissed a surgical negligence claim and delivered a sharp critique of the plaintiff’s expert.
Ontario Superior Court permits late naming of physicians and home-care contractor in pressure ulcer death case, applying the misnomer doctrine to John Doe pleadings.
An Ontario internist found negligent for delayed intubation and failure to call an intensivist when a young mother’s severe asthma attack turned catastrophic.
Ontario court finds emergency physician negligent for failing to refer 17-week pregnant patient with pPROM to obstetrician, leading to septic shock and amputations.
Ontario court awards over $1 million to nurse with chronic shoulder injury from improper tetanus injection by family medicine resident at SOC trial.
Ontario mid-trial ruling adopts but-for phrasing for jury causation questions in delayed diagnosis aneurysm case but declines to require jurors to give reasons.
Ontario court dismisses orthopaedic malpractice claim after finding hip replacement subsidence was osteointegration failure, a recognized complication, not negligence.
Ontario court denies defendant doctors’ motion for in-home security camera recordings in catastrophic injury malpractice action. Privacy prevails over relevance.
Ontario Superior Court dismisses fatal aortic dissection claim against internist and ED physician. The standards of care for mild aortic dilation and hypertensive chest pain.
Ontario Superior Court finds gynecologic surgeon liable for unrecognized intraoperative bowel injury. The duty to inspect framework in laparoscopic surgery.
Ontario Superior Court dismisses post-operative osteomyelitis claim. The hospitalist standard of care, patient-declined treatment, and the pre-existing infection defence.
Ontario Superior Court finds pediatric neurologists negligent for delayed pyridoxine treatment in PDE. The low-risk alternative framework and twin sister causation.
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