In the News

This week, the National Post ran a story with the headline, “Tobogganing under threat in the U.S. and Canada: Cities instituting bans after sledding injuries lead to lawsuits”. The story refers to communities in the U.S. and in Canada that are starting to restrict or, in places, outright ban tobogganing. As expected, the title of the article causes the public to believe that personal injury lawsuits are out of control and need to be restricted or limited. Nothing could be further from the truth.

When the calendar turns over to January 1, many Canadians pack up and head south. Once you are outside of Canada, most provincial healthcare plans will not cover your medical costs and expenses if you need medical help. The results can be devastating.

As a patient seeing a doctor, I would like to know if the doctor has been previously investigated for improper conduct or medical negligence. Unfortunately, this information is generally kept secret from the public. In Ontario, doctors are a self-regulating profession. The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (“CPSO”) governs and regulates all medical doctors. CPSO makes public on its website only complaints that end up being referred to CPSO’s discipline committee after an initial investigation has been completed. The registry can be found by clicking here.

In Ontario, before a law graduate can practice law, they must first complete their “articles”, which is on the job training with a practicing lawyer. When I did my articles 12 years ago, we articled for 12 months. The time has now been shortened to 10 months. The law graduate also has to pass the bar admission exams that occur before and after the period of articling.

This past week, the Ontario Liberal government publicly indicated that the government isn’t planning on changing the province’s law on joint and several liability. This is welcome decision for the rule of law in Ontario.

In past Bonn Law Blawgs I’ve fully agreed with Toronto Sun Columnist, Alan Shanoff. I cannot support his most recent column from July 5, 2014 in which he writes that it is time to end civil jury trials. While I agree with many of his points, the jury is fundamental to our system of law. In Ontario a civil jury is made up of 6 individuals from the community (not 12 that is reserved for criminal cases only). At the most basic level, a jury is protection for everyone from state power. Judges are appointed by government officials.

For years Google has been working on and developing a self-driving car. Last week it revealed how this new transportation vehicle is going to look and an idea of how it will operate. The prototype has no steering wheel or gas and brake pedals and the current model reaches a maximum speed of about 40 kilometers an hour. The car is not going to win any style awards:

In the early hours of October 28, 2012, seventeen year old Brandon Majewski hopped on his bicycle with two friends to go out for hot dogs. As they bicycled down the road, a SUV struck the three cyclists from behind, killing Brandon and seriously injuring his friend Richard McLean. The other young cyclist, Jake Roberts was lucky to escape with only minor scratches. This tragic incident has sparked legal actions on both sides. Brandon’s family started a legal action against the driver of the SUV, Sharlene Simon. Recently, Brandon’s family was served with legal papers indicating that Ms. Simon is counter suing Brandon and the other two young cyclists for the emotional trauma she suffered that night.