Paul Cahill - Toronto Medical Malpractice Lawyer

08/18/2026

The hospital has offered you a meeting with patient relations. Clients ask me constantly whether to go and what to say.

Go. A patient relations meeting is a complaint resolution process, not an investigation. No findings of fault, no discipline, no compensation. What it can give you is an explanation, and after a critical incident, a legal entitlement to the facts, the identified causes, and the systemic steps the hospital has taken.

Three things I tell everyone.

Request the records before the meeting, not after. Thirty days is the response time under PHIPA, so start the day the meeting is offered. Walking in having read the chart changes the conversation completely.

Send your questions in writing beforehand. Written questions are harder to talk around, and the hospital arrives with answers instead of promises to follow up.

Watch the calendar. The hospital's process runs on the hospital's timeline. Your limitation period runs on its own, and in a death case the two-year period under the Trustee Act runs from the date of death regardless of what the family knew.

Full guide linked in the comments.

05/06/2026

The most useful thing a medical malpractice lawyer can sometimes do for a prospective client is tell them not to sue.

After nearly two decades of these cases in Ontario, the question I hear most on a first call is whether someone can bring a claim. Yes, you can. The harder question is whether you should.

In a new piece on the blog, I walk through what I tell new clients every week. What Ontario law actually allows. The cap on general damages. Why proving causation defeats most cases that look strong on paper. The cost of running a claim against a defence funded by the CMPA. Why only about 30% of medical malpractice cases settle. And the two-year limitation period that quietly closes the door on otherwise meritorious claims before patients even start looking for a lawyer.

For a small number of patients and families, particularly those facing catastrophic, lifelong consequences from clearly substandard care, civil litigation is the right answer. For many others, the candid advice is that a lawsuit will do more harm than good.

Worth a read if you, a family member, or a colleague is weighing the question.

Yes, you can sue for medical malpractice in Ontario. The harder question is whether you should. After two decades of these cases, the candid advice for many prospective clients is to think very carefully before going forward, and in some cases, not to go forward at all.

04/20/2026

When does a surgical error stop being negligence and become a crime?

It’s a question that arises infrequently, but the cases where it does are instructive. This post looks at real examples from Canada and the U.S., and the legal threshold that must be met before criminal liability is engaged.

Medical malpractice is almost always addressed through civil litigation or professional discipline. However, in rare and exceptional circumstances, surgical or perioperative errors can give rise to criminal liability. These cases are important not because they are common, but because they illustrate...