Supreme Court of British Columbia

The Supreme Court of British Columbia, despite its name, is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in BC for civil matters. It is the rough equivalent of Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice. The Supreme Court of British Columbia has a particularly active medical malpractice docket, and its decisions are followed closely by Ontario counsel and Ontario courts even though they are not binding here. Some of the most frequently cited Canadian decisions on standard of care, causation, and expert evidence have originated in this court or have been refined on appeal from it.

British Columbia decisions are persuasive authority in Ontario, not binding authority. An Ontario judge is not required to follow a BCSC ruling, but in practice, where the BCSC has analyzed a question more thoroughly than any Ontario court, or where the question is novel, BCSC reasoning often informs the Ontario analysis. The Court of Appeal for British Columbia, by extension, is a frequent source of persuasive appellate guidance for Ontario practitioners.

Posts tagged Supreme Court of British Columbia analyze decisions from that court on medical malpractice issues, with attention to what the BCSC’s reasoning signals for the future direction of Ontario law on the same questions.