This is the fifth article in our series aimed at providing a detailed examination of the challenges and pitfalls in different types of medical negligence lawsuits and approaches to overcoming them. Letty Condon considers the unique aspects of birth injuries and the nature of obstetric practice. When caring for a patient in labour and delivery, healthcare professionals must know when observation and expectant care is appropriate and also when it is necessary to intervene, for the sake of both the pregnant person and their baby. This article will review cases in which obstetricians and other health care professionals failed to intervene in labour and also where they failed to obtain informed consent from the person in labour for the planned delivery.

This is the fourth article in our series examining the challenges and pitfalls in different types of medical negligence lawsuits and approaches to overcoming them. In this article Brenda Osmond focuses on a recent case in which the plaintiff was successful, Hasan v. Trillium Health Centre Mississauga, 2022 ONSC 3988 (CanLII) to illustrate a number of successful strategies used by plaintiff’s counsel, and problems experienced by the defence as they presented their case.

This is the third article in our series examining the challenges and pitfalls in different types of medical negligence lawsuits and approaches to overcoming them. Lindsay McGivern focuses on cases of acquired brain injury in adults caused by medical negligence. A common feature of these cases is that often the injury is the result of a missed diagnosis. The medical team had an opportunity to intervene and prevent the progression of the medical problem prior to the onset of permanent brain injury. Missed diagnoses are easy to see in retrospect. Succeeding in a medical malpractice claim for missed diagnosis, however, requires overcoming a series of obstacles.

This is the second article in our series examining the challenges and pitfalls in different types of medical negligence lawsuits and approaches to overcoming them. In this article Andrea Donaldson unravels some of the complexities inherent in surgical negligence lawsuits. Many factors come into play when there is a bad outcome after surgery. These include a physician’s clinical judgement, the surgical technique used and individual patient considerations. Cases of surgery performed on a wrong body part, or instruments left inside a patient make the news from time to time, but surgical negligence cases are rarely as straight-forward as that.

This article is the first in a series aimed at providing a detailed examination of the challenges and pitfalls in different types of medical negligence lawsuits. Each article will focus on specific injuries and will highlight the obstacles a plaintiff faces in bringing their case to a successful conclusion.

Should medical malpractice cases be heard in front of a jury, or by judge alone?  In this article Lindsay McGivern considers this question with examples from recent case law that illustrate some of the challenges and risks involved in having a complex case heard by a jury.