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www.canadianlawyermag.com 33 12 Number of lawyers 20 Number of support staff 1 Number of partner 1982 When firm was founded WAGNERS AT A GLANCE: Main areas of personal injury practice: personal injury, medical malpractice and class actions Wagners Personal Injury Lawyers Raymond Wagner, Q.C., founder and principal, Wagners Personal Injury Lawyers Email: seriousinjury@wagners.co Telephone: 1-902-425-7330 Website: www.wagners.co WAGNERS PERSONAL INJURY LAWYERS C alling Wagners Personal Injury Lawyers, the greeting you hear on the phone tells you all you need to know about the Halifax-based law firm and its goals. "Whatever your situation may be, it's our mission to advo- cate on your behalf with compassion and resolve [using] our considerable experience and dedi- cation to provide you with the compensation and closure you truly deserve." "It is just a small reminder that founder Ray Wagner, Q.C., has for most of his close to 40 years in practice devoted himself to representing injured plaintiffs, with a growing focus on class actions and medical negligence. Wagner says that while automobile-re- lated injuries are still a large part of the firm's practice area, much of the firm's growth has focused on the more complex negligence and product liability cases, along with class actions. He adds his firm is moving towards different areas of personal injury law, given the amount of competition in the area of auto accidents and "slip and fall" cases. Wagner says that developing the expertise to take on these complex areas of law has been a smart strategy for the firm. A past case that Wagner points to is Elwin et al. v. Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children et al., a class action concerning historic institutional abuse. The settlement provided a resolution to the plaintiffs based on "restorative justice" principles. The firm's active class actions include one against the Attorney General of Canada alleging sexual misconduct in the Canadian Armed Forces and the Department of National Defence. Wagners also represents former students of the Halifax and Amherst Schools for the Deaf in a certified class action alleging systemic abuse and the firm is also seeking certification of a proposed class action that it filed on behalf of Officers and/or Members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and who have been diagnosed with, or suffered from, an Operational Stress Injury. In the area of product liability, Wagners is also handling a certified class action claim on behalf of Canadians who were prescribed OxyContin dating back to 2007. A similar class action involves the Wright Profemur Hip Implant used with plaintiffs dating back to 2011. As for how COVID-19 has impacted the pace of progress on these cases, Wagner says these types of civil litigation matters are likely to be pushed back further, slowing down the already glacial pace with which they had been moving. But he says he is generally impressed at how the court system in Atlantic Canada has adapted to dealing with the pandemic, despite an "Atlantic bubble" that opened and closed more than once.