Ontario legal information · Ottawa and Eastern Ontario
What the page should help you decide
Snell rejected an overly rigid approach to causal inference in a medical-negligence setting.2
The plaintiff still bears the civil burden; the decision does not create liability whenever medicine cannot explain an outcome.
Keep the legal question, insurance route and next practical step distinct.
Legal question
First identify the applicable standard of care and the alleged missed step.
Coverage or process
Then compare the probable outcome with timely competent care.
Practical step
Separate additional injury caused by delay from the underlying disease itself.
Build the answer from records another person can check.
Presentation, triage, investigation and referral sequence.
Natural history and competing explanations.
Treatment window, prognosis and incremental harm.
Complete chart, imaging, pathology, policies and expert reasoning.
Protect the next real date.
Obtain records promptly, but do not ask an expert for a conclusion before giving a complete file.3
Discoverability may be fact-specific; protect the earliest plausible date.
How a personal injury lawyer may use this information.
General information explains the framework. Legal advice should connect that framework to the event, the people and insurers involved, the available records and the deadlines in the individual claim.
- Build the clinical chronology
- Define the counterfactual
- Choose qualified experts
- Separate underlying from added harm
Not every file requires every step or legal representation. The work should respond to the actual dispute, evidence gap or decision that is approaching.
Sources and legal references
These official sources provide the legal and procedural foundation for this page. Their current wording and the facts of the claim control.
View 3 sources
- Snell v. Farrell, 1990 CanLII 70 (SCC)
A leading Supreme Court of Canada medical-negligence causation decision.
Back to footnote ↑ - Ontario — Limitations Act, 2002
The basic limitation period, discoverability and statutory exceptions.
Back to footnote ↑ - Ontario — Rules of Civil Procedure
Current rules for civil proceedings and evidence-related steps.
Back to footnote ↑