Shiri Lidai
Direct line: 416.803.1455
Shiri has dedicated her practice to exclusively advocate for clients who have experienced medical negligence. With a decade of experience in medical malpractice law in Israel, she brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to her practice.
Shiri has been a committed advocate for patients and their families in litigating and related proceedings against physicians, nurses, hospitals and other health sector organizations. She has an extensive experience in a wide range of complex multi-disciplinary medical malpractice cases, including in pediatric and obstetric negligence, wrongful life, surgical complications, and misdiagnosed fatal diseases. Her dedication to her field was further exemplified by her organization of a conference for the Israeli Bar Association on the legal causal connection between asphyxia in birth and brain damage in newborns.
With her detail-oriented approach, thoroughness in her work and strong ability to learn and comprehend complex medical issues, Shiri strives to ensure that no aspect of a case is overlooked. She is committed to achieve optimal results for her clients, combining her legal acumen, advocacy skills, and strategic thinking.
Kelly Hayden
Direct line: 416.945.1955
Kelly’s developing practice encompasses a broad range of patient advocacy and health litigation. She has years of experience on complex medical malpractice matters, including cases involving obstetrical injuries, surgical complications, delayed or missed diagnoses, catastrophic brain injuries and privacy breaches. Kelly spent her first few years of practice at Lenczner Slaght LLP, where she acted on behalf of physicians who had been sued for medical malpractice or subject to complaints at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario. Kelly now acts for patients pursuing claims against physicians, hospitals, nurses and other healthcare professionals. Her experience representing physicians provides her with a unique perspective that assists her in securing strategic advantage for her clients.
Kelly also has extensive experience in public law and professional regulation, acting on behalf of members as well as various Colleges and regulatory bodies as investigation and prosecution counsel. Kelly has appeared before the Court of Appeal of Ontario, the Superior Court of Justice and a number of statutory tribunals. In 2021, Kelly has also brought her experience to the classroom, serving as an instructor in Administrative and Regulatory Law for Ryerson Faculty of Law’s inaugural first-year class. She has also led seminars in medical ethics for the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine. While at law school, Kelly represented inmates as part of the Prison Law Program and sat on the Executive of the Sexual Health Resource Centre.
Kelly has a reputation for delivering advice and arguments in a straightforward and no-nonsense manner, inspiring confidence both in and out of the courtroom. Her ability to drill down on key issues and think strategically makes her an effective advocate, whether representing clients at trial or through negotiating settlements.
Ken Morris
Direct line: 416.862.8320
Ken acts exclusively for people who have suffered medical negligence. He helps patients to successfully pursue claims against doctors, nurses, hospitals, hospital employees, clinics and other health care institutions in Canada. Based on his track record at trial, Ken is frequently retained on complex or contentious malpractice litigation matters by other lawyers to act as co-counsel to take these cases to trial.
Ken has repeatedly been voted by his peers as a leading lawyer in the area of medical negligence in the Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory ®. Ken is diligently building a reputation within the medical negligence arena in Canada as a dependable lawyer, trial counsel, negotiator and personal legal advisor with a rare sense of reality. Regardless of the matter under review, Ken provides clients and other lawyers who may engage his services with practical strategic options to achieve the best outcome.Ken has focused on medical malpractice actions since 2003. He has been successful at trial or negotiated settlement of lawsuits in most areas of medicine including:
- Obstetrics and gynaecology
- Neonatology (care of the newborn)
- Neurosurgery
- Neurology
- Orthopaedic surgery
- Ophthalmology (including retinal surgery, laser surgery, cataract surgery)
- Emergency care
- Injuries due to Trauma
- General surgery
- Cosmetic surgery
- Plastic surgery
- Prescription medication errors
- Oncology (involving the misdiagnosis and negligent treatment of cancer)
In the earlier years of his practice, Ken worked at Canada’s first national law firm McCarthy Tetrault LLP defending doctors who had been sued for medical malpractice. This experience helps him strategize to position clients to their greatest advantage and achieve their best outcome.
Before becoming a lawyer, Ken was selected as an All-Canadian in both basketball and academics at University of British Columbia. After his university career he played basketball professionally in Europe for two years. His competitiveness and enthusiasm for what he does now benefit patients and co-counsel who may be faced with a difficult fight against well-funded health care defendants.
* Past results obtained are not necessarily indicators of future results and the amount recovered and other litigation outcomes will vary according to the facts in individual cases.
Lori Stoltz
Direct line: 416.862.1078
For over 25 years Lori has acted for patients, a broad range of health care providers, advocacy organizations and decision-makers across the Canadian health care delivery system. Lori brings a broad perspective to her work, careful attention to the needs of her clients and a passion for pursuing legal issues and cases that help to make access to health care safer, more accessible and more accountable.
Lori’s diverse engagements on health-related matters have included:
- Acting for patients and their families in medical negligence claims against physicians and other health care providers. Lori’s experience includes injuries arising from: delayed diagnosis of cancer and other serious conditions; emergency care; failures relating to HIV testing and counselling; gynecological surgery and other reproductive health issues; labour and delivery; medication errors; orthopedic surgery; and post-operative infection.
- Career-long engagement on public health matters, including as co-author of Public Health Law and Practice in Ontario: The Health Protection and Promotion Act (J. Speakman, L. Stoltz and R. Blake). During the COVID-19 pandemic, Lori advised public health authorities across Ontario and others including Ontario’s Long-Term Care COVID-19 Commission.
- Assisting patients and health system advocates, health care providers and government agencies navigate the complex legislative framework that governs health care delivery, the public health system and clinical research
- Acting for clinical researchers, research organizations and others to protect the safety of research subjects
- Advising the Honourable A. Anne McLellan, former federal Minister of Health, as her Senior Policy Advisor on Medicare reform and other matters
- Advising UNAIDS (the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS) on the legal and human rights issues presented by HIV testing of UN peacekeeping forces
- Serving as Chair of the Health Protection Appeal Board (now part of the Health Services Appeal and Review Board)
- Early involvement in litigation arising from contamination of the Canadian blood supply with HIV and Hepatitis C, and representing patients and their families before the federal Commission of Inquiry on the Blood System in Canada
Lori has experience before administrative tribunals (including the Health Professions Appeal and Review Board, Health Services Appeal and Review Board and Consent and Capacity Board), all levels of Ontario courts and the Supreme Court of Canada, and with class proceedings. She is a member of the Advisory Committee to the Master of Science in Healthcare Quality Program at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, and of the Advocates’ Circle of the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network.
Past community engagement includes serving as a director for Hassle Free Clinic and COTA (Community Occupational Therapists and Associates), and as a director and President of the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network.
HIGHLIGHTS
Jillian Evans
Direct line: 416.862.8171
Jillian has committed nearly twenty years to improving and increasing Canadians’ access to safe and effective health care. She has established herself as a trusted and respected advocate for patients and their families in litigation and related proceedings against physicians, nurses, hospitals, pharmacists, dentists and other health sector organizations, and has extensive experience in medical injuries arising from:
- surgical error
- orthopedic injuries
- transient ischemic attacks
- neurological injury
- birthing injuries
- late cancer diagnosis
- misread imaging
- pathology error
- medication overdose
- prescription dispensing error
- anesthesia injuries
- laparoscopic surgery
Jillian has been voted by her peers as a leading lawyer in the area of medical negligence in the Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory (2019,2020, 2021 and 2022), and is listed in the 2021 and 2022 Best Lawyers guide. She also sits on the College of Midwives of Ontario’s Registration and Inquiries, Complaints and Reports Committees. Her clients and co-counsel benefit from her responsiveness and perseverance, as well as from her ability to skillfully distill complex medical information in order to best advance her clients’ interests. Jillian’s familiarity with all facets of the health care system also equips her to assist health care consumers on matters involving consent, privacy and access to care.
Jillian represents her clients in motions, trials and appeals at all levels of court, as well as in hearings, inquests and proceedings before the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, the Office of the Chief Coroner, the Health Professions Appeal and Review Board and the Health Services Appeal and Review Board.
As the past Chair of the Medical Malpractice Group of the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association and an instructor at the Lincoln Alexander School of Law, Jillian is a frequent lecturer and speaker on issues relating to patient rights, advocacy and the intersections between law and medicine for Osgoode’s School of Professional Development, the Ontario Bar Association, the Medico-Legal Society of Toronto and other legal and health sector stakeholders.
Most recently, Jillian has joined the federal Social Security Tribunal as part time member and adjudicator.
Jillian has developed a nuanced appreciation for the often overlapping legal, social, financial and personal needs of individuals and families affected by medical negligence. She uses her skills in both advocacy and negotiation to achieve the best possible results for her clients, in or out of the courtroom. A devoted proponent of our publicly funded health care system, Jillian’s long history of community involvement with organizations like Planned Parenthood Toronto, the John Howard Society of Ontario, Street Health Community Nursing and the Massey Centre for Women reflects her commitment to safeguarding and championing universal access to health care.
HIGHLIGHTED CASES*
- Rodrigues v. Altourshi (2022) – Jillian successfully moved to extend the deadline for serving a defendant physician in another jurisdiction.
- Spry v Southlake Regional Health Centre (2022) – Jillian successfully represented the plaintiff in this medical malpractice case in her efforts to bring a second defendant emergency room physician into the action more than two years after the attendance at issue.
- Vandenakker v. Yen (2021) – Jillian represented the plaintiff in resisting the defendant physician’s motion to have her action dismissed on the basis of an allegedly missed limitation period.
- Cooper v. Toronto (2020) – Jillian successfully moved to have Toronto Hydro, a corporation wholly owned by the existing defendant City of Toronto, added to the action on the basis of misnomer.
- Eichinger v. Vaidyanathan (2020): Jillian successfully preserved her client’s right to reference ‘similar fact evidence’ in her Statement of Claim in this action involving brachial plexus injuries sustained by the plaintiff during her birth.
- Campagiorni v. Bednar (2020): Jillian successfully defeated the defendant orthopedic surgeon’s motion for summary judgment on behalf of the plaintiff patient.
- Cooper v. Toronto (2019): Jillian successfully appealed a lower court’s refusal to add a new defendant to an existing action, arguing on the plaintiffs’ behalf that the proposed defendant’s involvement in the matters at issue was not reasonably discoverable any earlier.
- Simons v. Canada (2018): Jillian Evans and Lori Stoltz successfully resisted the Correctional Service of Canada’s motion for access to the applicants’ experts’ privileged file contents in this Charter litigation involving federal prisoners’ access to health care and harm reduction services.
- Way v. Ahmad (2017): As trial counsel, Jillian obtained judgment for the family of a man who passed away following surgery due to untreated sleep apnea.
- C.P. v. Y.H. (2017): Jillian successfully appealed a decision of the Inquiries, Complaints and Reports Committee of the CPSO, with the Health Professions Appeal and Review Board finding that the investigation into C.P.’s complaint had been inadequate and returning it to the Committee for further investigation.
- Rycroft v. Chen (2017): Jillian succeeded at trial on behalf of the family of a woman who passed away following an endoscopic procedure.
- Oakley v. Guirguis (2014) : Jillian defeated the defendant physician’s motion to dismiss the plaintiffs’ lawsuit on the grounds of an expiry of the limitation period, successfully arguing that Ms. Oakley’s statute of limitations did not start to run until she first learned of the alleged error.
- Frazer v. Haukioja (2008): Jillian was co-counsel at trial for a man who developed avascular necrosis and psychiatric injuries after an ankle fracture was left untreated by the defendant emergency physician. Damages of $1.8 million were awarded to the Plaintiffs at trial, which were upheld on appeal.
- Geddes v. Bloom (2008): Jillian was counsel for the plaintiff at trial in an action against a radiologist alleging a failure to diagnose a fractured jaw.
- Medeiros v. Bederman (2006): Jillian successfully obtained judgment for the plaintiff at trial against a plastic surgeon.
- As co-counsel in a historical institutional negligence action involving allegations of decades of physical and sexual abuse, Jillian assisted her clients in securing a substantial settlement.
- Jillian obtained settlement for the family of a young boy who died after an attendance at the emergency department failed to identify a foreign body in his windpipe.
- Jillian negotiated a significant settlement for the family of a man who passed away following a late diagnosis of prostate cancer.
- Jillian successfully resolved litigation on behalf of a man and his young daughters after their mother died as a result of a post-partum hemorrhage, obtaining a sizable settlement on the family’s behalf.
* Past results obtained are not necessarily indicators of future results and the amount recovered and other litigation outcomes will vary according to the facts in individual cases.