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ARTICLE · 18 OCTOBER 2021

Ontario Court Releases Merits Decision In Medical Malpractice Class Action

Siskinds LLP
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After years of litigation, a medical malpractice class action has been decided on its merits.

CanadaLitigation, Mediation & Arbitration
Siskinds LLP
Siskinds LLP
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After years of litigation, a medical malpractice class action has been decided on its merits. On September 15, 2021, the Ontario Superior Court released its common issues trial decision in Levac v. James, 2021 ONSC 5971. The class action resulted in the plaintiff achieving complete success at the common issues trial against one of the defendants and no success at all against the others.

Levac is the latest of a growing number of representative actions to be tested on the merits. The decision reaffirms that infectious outbreaks are well suited to certification and are amendable to adjudication on a class-wide basis. But it also wrestles with a novel theory of liability before the Court, one that could have wide-ranging implication: a theory based not on a traditional causation analysis but on an epidemiological analysis premised on the statistically high rates of infections found among a health care practitioner's patients.

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