Ontario legal information · Ottawa and Eastern Ontario
What the page should help you decide
Reibl locates inadequate disclosure in negligence and sets a modified objective approach to causation.2
The current Health Care Consent Act also governs consent in Ontario; capacity, voluntariness and treatment-specific information must be considered.
Keep the legal question, insurance route and next practical step distinct.
Legal question
A disclosure claim differs from a claim that the procedure itself fell below the standard of care.
Coverage or process
Emergency, capacity and substitute-decision situations require their own analysis.
Practical step
The patient must connect the undisclosed material risk to the decision and resulting injury.
Build the answer from records another person can check.
What the clinician knew about the patient and proposed treatment.
Risk, alternatives, prognosis and actual complication.
Patient goals, questions and decision constraints.
Notes, handouts, consent form, witnesses and expert opinion.
Protect the next real date.
Memories fade, so record the conversation while details remain available.3
Do not assume the date of surgery is the only possible limitation date.
How a medical malpractice lawyer may help assess this concern.
A poor outcome is not enough by itself. The legal review must separate the medical question, the standard of care, causation and the additional loss said to result.
- Identify material risks
- Reconstruct the discussion
- Separate disclosure from performance
- Test decision causation
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
- Reibl v. Hughes, 1980 CanLII 23 (SCC)
The Supreme Court of Canada's leading informed-consent decision.
Back to footnote ↑ - Ontario — Health Care Consent Act, 1996
Ontario's statutory framework for consent to treatment.
Back to footnote ↑ - Ontario — Limitations Act, 2002
The basic limitation period, discoverability and statutory exceptions.
Back to footnote ↑