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.

This is the final article in our 8-part series on medical malpractice litigation published in the Verdict law journal. In this article Susanne Raab reviews the physicians’ obligation to disclose to their patients when a medical error occurs in the provision of their health care, and also examines the consequences that flow from a failure to make these required disclosures.