Personal Injury

Medical Malpractice Lawyers in Atlantic Canada

A bad outcome in a hospital is not negligence on its own. Treatment carries risk, and the law accepts that. A medical malpractice lawyer proves two things instead: that the care fell below what a reasonably competent physician, nurse or hospital would have provided, and that the failure caused harm the illness alone would not have. Both are proven with expert evidence. This firm investigates a malpractice claim before it pleads one, in all four Atlantic provinces.

A Medical Malpractice Lawyer Proves the Standard of Care and Causation

The standard of care is what a reasonable practitioner in the same field would have done at the time, with the information available at the time. It is not perfection and it is not hindsight. The second requirement is causation. The failure must have changed the outcome. A diagnosis missed after the disease was already beyond treatment can be poor care and still not be a claim, because earlier care would not have altered the result. Both questions are answered by physicians in the same specialty, not by lawyers.

Physicians and Hospitals Are Defended by Different Organisations

Most physicians in Canada are defended by the Canadian Medical Protective Association, which contests claims thoroughly and settles only on evidence. Hospitals, and the nurses and staff they employ, answer separately through the provincial health authorities and their insurers. Many physicians work in a hospital without being its employee, so naming the right defendants is part of the work. Where the failure sits between a physician’s order and a nurse’s execution, both are pursued and the record decides.

The Investigation Comes Before the Lawsuit

The first step is the complete chart, which you are entitled to request from the hospital and from each clinic involved. We read it against the imaging, the lab results and the nursing notes, then retain an expert in the same specialty to review the care. If the expert concludes the care was reasonable, we tell you that plainly and the matter ends there. If the expert identifies a breach, the claim is pleaded with that opinion behind it. No promises are made about outcomes at any stage, because the evidence, not the injury, decides these cases.

Every Atlantic Province Gives Two Years From Discovery

New Brunswick’s Limitation of Actions Act, SNB 2009, c L-8.5 gives two years counted from when the claim was discovered, and the Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador statutes write in the same discoverability rule. Prince Edward Island’s Statute of Limitations, RSPEI 1988, c S-7 also gives two years, but it carries no general discoverability rule, so an Island claim is treated as running from the treatment itself. Discovery is important in malpractice because a surgical error or a missed result often becomes apparent long after the treatment. On PEI, that gap is a reason to get advice quickly without assuming that the limitation period was suspended. A claim belonging to a child is generally postponed while the child is a minor, though the rules differ by province and the details belong in the first consultation. Records and memories fade either way, so the investigation should start early.

Each Province Has Its Own Medical Malpractice Page

The Claim Recovers Care, Income and the Cost the Injury Adds to a Life

Damages cover pain and suffering, income lost to the injury, the earning capacity it takes away, the care and equipment the future will need, housekeeping help and out-of-pocket expenses. Where the harm is permanent, future care is costed by care experts and becomes the largest part of the claim. A birth injury claim is its own field with its own page: birth injury lawyers.

Is a Bad Result Enough to Sue?

No. The result starts the question. The chart and an expert’s review of it answer whether the care, and not the condition, produced the result.

The Firm Charges No Fee Unless the Claim Resolves

Expert reports are the main expense in a malpractice claim and the firm carries the disbursements while the claim runs. The review of your records costs you nothing to start. Contact the firm with the dates and the hospital, and the records requests go out first. Every claim type the firm takes is under injury law areas.