Download Class Action - Tort Law - Lecture Notes and more Study notes Law in PDF only on Docsity! Class-action lawsuits medicine's newest legal headache The legal news for Canada's physicians has been bleak for years: 1 in 25 physicians was named in a new legal action in 2000 and the number of malpractice cases proceeding to trial doubled between 1995 and 1999. Now, the country's first medical malpractice class- action lawsuits give them something new to fret about. One has already been certified — it received approval to proceed from the courts after a 4-year fight — while lawyers in the second case are still seeking certification. And even though class actions are a new phenomenon for Canadian health care, the Canadian Medical Protective Association (CMPA) has already identified them as one of the major challenges facing it (CMAJ 2001;165[2]:204). The suit that has been certified is a $100-million class action against Toronto neurologist Ronald H. Wilson and his technologist. Together, they operated 6 electroencephalography clinics in the Toronto area. The principal allegation is that Wilson and his technologist failed to follow proper sterilization procedures and, as a result, triggered an outbreak of hepatitis B (CMAJ 2000; 162[8]:1127-31). To put the suit's size in perspective, the CMPA paid awards totalling $100 million in 1999; this covered every award paid on behalf of its 60 000 members. This probably explains why the CMPA fought certification of the suit all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada, where leave to appeal the earlier ruling was denied. In May 2001, a $25-million class action was filed against Dr. Errol S. Wai-Ping, the Rouge Valley Health System (which includes the Ajax-Pickering Hospital where Dr. Wai-Ping practised) and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario. The suit alleges that Wai-Ping provided substandard care that included performing unnecessary hysterectomies and failing to remove surgical instruments from patients (www .hartelaw .com /Waiping/links.html). The suit further alleges that the college is guilty of "gross negligence and acting in bad faith for failing to properly investigate and act on almost a dozen patient complaints filed against Dr. Errol Wai-Ping as far back as 1992." Meanwhile, the hospital has been accused of "failing to protect patients when it knew or ought to have known that Wai-Ping had a reputation for substandard care." By June, 236 women had contacted lawyers about about joining the class action. This suit has not been certified and is still at the most preliminary stage, but even a failed attempt at certification can devastate a physician's career because of the media coverage it receives. (Although the courts may not even allow the Wai-Ping case to proceed as a class action, Wai-Ping himself has taken a voluntary leave from his hospital.) Class-action lawsuits have only recently started to gain popularity in Canada — recent examples are the tainted-water case in Walkerton, Ont., and the suit involving natives who attended Canada's residential schools. They are permitted only in Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia, although the Supreme Court of Canada recently gave the nod to class actions in other provinces by allowing one to proceed in Alberta, which has no comprehensive class-action legislation. Docsity.com
