Hospital Medical Malpractice Lawyers - Canada

We can ensure that you get a fair deal; our hospital medical malpractice lawyers have a track record of successful verdicts and settlements. Your claim will be dealt with using a contingency fee arrangement which means if you don't succeed in receiving a financial settlement then your lawyer won't get paid. If you would like free advice on hospital malpractice in Canada without obligation just call the helpline or complete the contact form or email our offices and a specialist medical malpractice lawyer will speak to you on the telephone.

Hospital malpractice is the failure of a health care provider to treat and care for a patient with a reasonable degree of skill and care. If you or your child have been injured as a result of a failure by the medical profession in Ontario you may be entitled to financial compensation for medical malpractice. If you are the dependent of someone who has died as a result of wrongful medical treatment, a specialist medical malpractice lawyer may be able to claim financial compensation on your behalf.

By far the majority of injuries and deaths caused by medical errors do not result in investigations by a hospital negligence lawyer. Mistakes occur not only in hospitals but in day surgery and outpatient clinics, retail pharmacies, nursing homes and home care. Medication errors alone contribute to scores deaths every year which probably exceeds workplace accident fatalities.

Skill & Competence

Medical malpractice occurs when a person suffers harm as a result of negligence by a healthcare professional which is usually as a result of failure to use adequate care or lack of skill. Healthcare professionals must act with the level of skill and learning commonly possessed by members of the profession in the same geographic community. A professional will be liable in negligence if he acted without the requisite skill and competence but not merely because the operation or procedure failed to produce the desired outcome. Medical malpractice can have catastrophic results for the victim and an expert hospital malpractice lawyer can help to redress the balance by recovery of adequate and reasonable compensation.

Evidence Collation

An experienced medical malpractice lawyer will initially obtain a detailed medical history and will obtain the names of all physicians and hospitals that have rendered medical treatment to the client. The client should prepare a chronological written summary of all relevant events and thereafter medical records are obtained by the lawyer . Once all of the documentary evidence has been collated and considered by the lawyer, it will be sent to a medical specialist for review. In many cases proof of negligence will be found in this documentation without the necessity to obtain further evidence and without taking the case to trial.

Clinical Experts

Our lawyers keep a database of experienced specialist doctors, surgeons and academic researchers each one of whom can be called upon to act as a medical malpractice expert for the purpose of initial review of documentation. Many of these consultants are leaders in their fields and come from both academic and medical backgrounds. Full and detailed information is also available in regards to specialists who are willing to attend the court for trial to give evidence as expert witnesses.

Expert Opinion

A medical expert should be well qualified to give a medical opinion on whether or not there has been clinical negligence and is usually certified in the relevant field of medicine. If, after a review of the records, the medical expert concludes that the action or inaction of the defendant physician was the cause of damage to the plaintiff then it may be appropriate, in the absence of an admission of liability, to file suit.

Hospital Medical Malpractice - Facts & Figures

• Only a few hundred doctors face any serious disciplinary procedure each year which represents less then 1%.
• It is estimated that as many as 10,000 patients may be killed annually as a result of medical and hospital malpractice.
• Various sources have found that up to 1% of patients treated in hospital were injured, and 25% of those died because of medical negligence.
• The potential abuse by physicians working outside of hospitals is even greater and almost half of all doctors questioned recall a case in which a patient died due to physician error.
• Only one in eight patients that suffers from negligence actually consults a hospital malpractice lawyer and files a lawsuit.
• Autopsy studies from hospitals show rates between 35% and 40% of missed diagnoses with most resulting in death but these figures do not include deaths from missed diagnoses or medical negligence that occurred in clinics, private doctors' offices, or other treatment facilities which it is anticipated are higher.
• Medical negligence insurance costs represents 3% of the average physician’s revenues and while medical costs have increased by over 100% percent in the last ten years the amount spent on insurance has increased by only 50 percent over the same time.
• Tens of thousands of medical negligence claims have been filed in the last 12 years and over 5,000 new claims are filed every year.

• The cost to society of medical negligence is estimated to exceed $1,000,000,000 annually.
• 5% of doctors account for 50% of the medical negligence settlements.
• Over 2,000 doctors have been responsible two or more negligence settlements since 1990 however less than 8% of them have been disciplined. Of doctors with five medical negligence settlements only about 10% have been disciplined.

The author of the substantive medical writing on this website is Dr. Christine Traxler MD whose biography can be read here