Susanne Katja Raab

Partner

Susanne Raab is a lawyer at Pacific Medical Law, and an advocate for people living with disabilities. She has been selected for inclusion by her peers in Best Lawyers in Canada in the area of Medical Negligence and is recognized as a leading practitioner in the Canadian Legal Lexpert® Directory in medical malpractice. Susanne is also a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America, an honorary trial lawyer society whose membership is limited to less than one-half of one percent of North American lawyers, judges and scholars.

Susanne’s practice focuses on representing individuals and families who have suffered injuries as a result of medical malpractice, with a focus on birth injuries and catastrophic brain and spinal cord injuries. Prior to joining Pacific Medical Law, Susanne spent much of her legal career representing physicians in complex medical malpractice actions.

Susanne has appeared before the Provincial Court and Supreme Court of British Columbia, the BC Court of Appeal, as well as the Supreme Court of Canada. Susanne also serves on the Executive of the Canadian Bar Association for the BC Health Law Subsection.

Susanne is also an adjunct professor at the UBC Allard School of Law where she teaches the medical negligence course to 2^nd and 3^rd year law students.

Susanne is actively involved in advocating for individuals living with disabilities, and is past President of the Board of Directors of the Cerebral Palsy Association of British Columbia, as well as founder of the Advisory Committee of the Cerebral Palsy Association of British Columbia.

Classes/Seminars

• Chair and Presenter, “Primary Pitfalls in Prosecuting Medical Negligence Cases against Physicians and Strategies to Overcome Them”, Trial Lawyers Association of BC, Medical Legal Conference, Vancouver 2021
• Presenter, “Civil Litigation Basics 2021”, The Continuing Legal Education Society of BC, Vancouver, 2021
• Chair and speaker, “A Patient’s Right to Know – A comparative analysis of the scope of a physician’s duty of disclosure of potential harms vs. actual harms” International Academy of Law and Mental Health, Rome, 2019
• Speaker, “A Child’s Right to Decide – the Sliding Scale of Capacity to Accept or Refuse Medical Treatment”, International Academy of Law and Mental Heath, Prague, 2017
• Chair, “Proving Physical and Psychiatric Injuries”, Trial Lawyers Association of BC, Medical Legal Conference, 2017
• Speaker, “A Physician’s Duty to Disclose Medical Errors”, BC Radiological Society 2016
• Speaker, “Claims for Nervous Shock- Advances in the Law and Medicine”, Trial Lawyers Association of BC, Medical Legal Conference, 2016
• Speaker, “The Treating Physician as an Expert Witness, Issues of Procedure, Admissibility and Bias”, Canadian Bar Association, National Health Law Summit, 2015
• Medical Ethics Guest, University of British Columbia Faculty of Medicine
• Speaker, “Civil Litigation – Causation in Medical Malpractice Cases”, Continuing Legal Education, 2014
• Speaker, “Nursing Liability in the Context of the Evolving Nursing Profession”, Greater Vancouver Legal Nurse Consultants Association, 2014
• Chair, Medicine for Lawyers, Continuing Legal Education, 2014
• Chair, Merging of the Minds, Trial Lawyers Association of BC, Medical Legal Conference, 2013
• Speaker, “The Influence of Counsel on an Expert’s Report – Where to Draw the Line”, Greater Vancouver Legal Nurse Consultants Association, 2013
• Speaker, “Medical Malpractice Litigation: The B.C Experience”, Ontario Trial Lawyers Association, Medical Malpractice Conference, 2013
• Speaker, “Making way for the modern mother: The campaign for improved work life balance in private practice”, Lunching with Leaders, The Law Courts Inn, 2013
• Chair, Persuasion and the Complex Case, Trial Lawyers Association of BC, Medical Legal Conference, 2012
• Speaker, “The Foundations of Expert Reports: Writing and Admissibility”, Trial Lawyers Association of BC, Medical Legal Conference, 2012
• Speaker, “What is Admissible, and What isn’t Admissible in Expert Reports”, Greater Vancouver Legal Nurse Consultant Association, 2012

Honors and Awards

• The Best Lawyers in Canada – recognized from 2014 to 2020
• Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America – since 2017
• Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory – recognized as a Leading Practitioner in Medical Malpractice – 2017 – 2019

Professional Associations and Memberships

• Cerebral Palsy Association of British Columbia, President and Chair of Advisory Committee (Past)
• Canadian Bar Association – Executive, BC Health Law subsection

Publications

• “The Evolution of the Law of Informed Consent” by Susanne Raab for the Verdict, Issue 164, Spring 2020
• What are a Physician’s Legal and Ethical Obligations to your Injured Client? by Susanne Raab for the Verdict, Issue 159, Winter 2019
• The question of medical negligence in British Columbia’s Cambridge affair by Susanne Raab for The Lawyers Daily – June 26, 2018
• C. College of Physicians and Surgeons protects public by delisting uncertified doctors by Susanne Raab for The Lawyers Daily – June 20, 2018
• Adverse Inference – Failure to call a Physician by Andrea Donaldson and Susanne Raab for the Verdict, Issue 154, Fall 2017
• The Effective Use of Medical Literature by Lindsay McGivern & Susanne Raab for the Verdict, Issue 149, Summer 2016
• Medical Errors: Physician’s Duty To Tell The Truth – The Whole Truth by Susanne Raab, for the Verdict, Issue 141, Summer 2014
• Michael Bortolotto: A Rebel with a Cause by Susanne Raab, for the Business Examiner, October 2014

Reviews