FEATURE
28 www.lawtimesnews.com
FOCUS ON MEDICAL MALPRACTICE
While not a complete solution to the David
and Goliath dynamic, Mandel says a require-
ment for more active participation by CMPA
members in the mediation and pretrial pro-
cess would be a start.
Shannon agrees it would be helpful if there
was a person at a pretrial from the CMPA
who was a willing participant "rather than
just hiding behind a phone. It would be of
some assistance, I think, in moving the pro-
cess along."
Mandel says none of this is to disparage his
opposing counsel in these matters. The CMPA
have some of the best counsel, but "they talk
about broken telephone for a reason. Even the
best counsel can fall victim to inadvertent
loss of subtleties in an important message."
Cruz says this is a typical process, noting,
"In civil litigation, parties have lawyers and all
the settlement negotiations, when there are
lawyers appointed, go through the lawyer."
Lawyers who take on medical malprac-
tice cases can only do so much to address
the inequities in the system. Both lawyers
agree a rigorous vetting process and a harsh
filter when agreeing to take on cases is their
best defence.
"What I hope is that, when I'm dealing with
the CMPA and their counsel, they know if I'm
on the file [that] it's already gone through
a rigorous filter — so let's try to get to the
end point as quickly as possible," Sloan says.
"That's me and my practice and the experi-
ence of 24 years of having to fight Goliath.
That's not really a solution for the 196 people
I said I can't help."
"My general feeling is they
are improving — they are prepared
to settle cases. They don't give them
away, they're tough on the damages,
but they are more prepared to settle."
Michael Shannon, Morse Shannon LLP
