TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALL GAME
Seems everyone’s talking baseball. The team’s off to a good start. Could this be the year? Does the team need another big bat in the middle of the order? Does the team have enough pitching? Even lawyers are talking baseball. Thing is, some lawyers can’t help looking at baseball a little differently. When a lawyer [...]
UP IN SMOKE – BC JUDGE AWARDS COSTS FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA
In the recent decision of Joinson v. Heran, 2011 BCSC 727, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Brown awarded a plaintiff costs for medical marijuana arising out of a medical malpractice action. This is the first time in Canada that costs have been awarded for medical marijuana. The plaintiff, who suffered damages after the defendant neurosurgeon performed [...]
OF FLIES AND FORTITUDE: COMPENSABLE PSYCHOLOGICAL INJURY IN ONTARIO
Damages for psychological injury and nervous shock have always been difficult to prove, and, when established, even more difficult to refute. Thanks to Mustapha v Culligan of Canada Ltd., and the Ontario Court of Appeal decision in Healey v Lakeridge Health Corporation the law with regards to the threshold for damages for nervous shock and [...]
SLIPPERY SIDEWALK, EH? BETTER WATCH YOUR STEP!
It was a cold, grey and dreary day in the middle of an endless Toronto winter. The plaintiff, Wally (not his real name), parked his taxi cab in a parking spot on Bloor Street. He had to see his travel agent to pick up tickets for his warm-weather vacation. As he was walking past a [...]
PERSONAL INJURY DAMAGES ARE ON THE RISE
There are two main sets of damages available in personal injury cases: non-pecuniary general damages (generally known as damages for pain and suffering) and pecuniary loss (i.e. the financial cost to an injured person). Non-pecuniary general damages in Canada are limited by a cap which was imposed by the Supreme Court of Canada in 1978. [...]
CLAIMING LOSS OF OPPORTUNITY TO FORM INTERDEPENDENT RELATIONSHIPS
Where the plaintiff’s injuries are such that they can no longer form or maintain certain types of relationships, the court may award damages for the loss of an interdependent relationship. Not all relationships will attract such damages, nor is it the loss of the relationship itself that is compensable. Rather, these damages are aimed at [...]
CARE COSTS DRIVE LARGE DAMAGES AWARDS
Damages awards in recent Ontario court decisions involving catastrophic brain injury have reached unprecedented levels — in the millions of dollars. In Marcoccia v. Gill, the plaintiff, Robert Marcoccia, was a twenty-something male who injured the frontal and temporal lobes of his brain in a car accident. The jury assessed damages at $16.9 million. In [...]