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Plaintiff lawyers warn that Ontario's civil justice overhaul would upend medical
malpractice litigation, writes Tim Wilbur
Ontario reforms spark
medical malpractice
backlash
LEGAL REPORT
MEDICAL MALPRACTICE
ONTARIO'S SWEEPING civil justice
reforms, championed by Chief Justice
Geoffrey Morawetz and Attorney General
Doug Downey, are drawing sharp criti-
cism from plaintiff-side medical malprac-
tice lawyers. The overhaul, co-chaired by
Ontario Superior Court of Justice Cary
Boswell and Allison Speigel of Speigel
Nichols Fox LLP, promises faster, simpler
litigation. For those litigating medical
negligence, though, they say the changes
threaten to undermine the very core of
their practice.
Plaintiff lawyers challenge new rules
Aleks Mladenovic, partner at Thomson
Rogers LLP, says the lack of medical
malpractice expertise among those drafting
the reforms highlights a fundamental flaw
in the process: "None of the subcommittee
members are practising members of the
bar who do medical malpractice work in
any capacity." He argues the new rules
were "driven not by just the issue of delays
but the issue of costs, which, of course, is
frankly not an issue in medical malpractice
cases," since plaintiffs never bear the costs
because they pay lawyers on a contingency
basis and the Canadian Medical Protective
