Posts tagged Trial Decision analyze reasons issued by Ontario trial judges (or, in the rarer case of a jury trial, the verdict and judge’s instructions) at the conclusion of a medical malpractice action. Trial decisions are the most detailed source of insight into how Ontario courts apply the standard of care, causation, and damages frameworks to specific clinical fact patterns. Unlike summary judgment decisions or appellate rulings, a trial decision reflects the court’s view after hearing all of the evidence, including the testimony of the parties, fact witnesses, and competing experts.
Medical malpractice trials are evidence-intensive and procedurally demanding. A typical trial may run two to six weeks and involve five or more expert witnesses on each side, addressing standard of care, causation, the mechanism of injury, prognosis, and quantum of damages. The trial judge’s reasons must address each element of the cause of action, resolve conflicting expert opinions, and explain the credibility findings underlying any disputed facts. These reasons can run to hundreds of paragraphs.
Posts under this tag identify the clinical context, the issues on which the case turned, the expert evidence, and the result. Each post indicates whether the decision is on appeal.
The Supreme Court of British Columbia dismisses a maxillomandibular advancement claim brought by a self-represented plaintiff. An American expert who could not identify the Royal College of Dentists of Canada, a seven-hour video log that contradicted the plaintiff’s trial evidence, and an adverse inference the court declined to draw.
A self-represented plaintiff recovered the full $50,000 Small Claims Court limit for burns and permanent pigmentation loss from a laser hair removal treatment, without an expert report on the standard of care. The Court reached that result by applying Ayana v Skin Klinic, the 2009 decision establishing that laser hair removal is not a medical procedure in Ontario. The defence bet that no plaintiff expert meant no case, and lost.
Norman Clarey nearly died after a bowel resection led to a failed anastomosis and a permanent stoma. A Prince Edward Island court nonetheless dismissed his negligence, breach of contract, and informed consent claims, finding Dr. Gillis met the standard of care throughout and that causation was not proven. As an out-of-province decision it is persuasive but not binding in Ontario, though it applies largely Ontario and Supreme Court of Canada authority.
New Brunswick court holds anesthesiologist negligent in death of 36-year-old patient with severe obesity and sepsis after spinal anesthesia choice and management.
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.
Justice Williams awards over $1M in costs against the unsuccessful plaintiff in the Lyme disease malpractice trial. The defendant-win costs framework in Ontario.
The BC Supreme Court dismisses a missed-appendicitis claim. Normal ultrasound, documented differential diagnosis, and the anchoring bias allegation rejected.
When a surgical complication is extreme and rare, the trier of fact can infer negligence from the outcome itself. Trial win on shoulder replacement nerve injury.
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.
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