Kris focuses on helping people who have suffered serious personal injuries, car crash victims and long-term disability claims. Kris also helps people who are facing impaired driving and over 80 related criminal charges. Kris has successfully argued cases before juries, judges and the Court of Appeal in Toronto. Kris is active in the community as a Director of the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association and the local Brain Injury Association Quinte District. He is a member of the Hastings County Law Association and the Advocates Society. He supports local charities, including the Trenton and Belleville Hospital Foundations.
The Canadian Medical Protection Association describes itself as “a not-for-profit mutual defence association.” Even though it acts as an insurer, providing resources to help manage risk and assistance when medical-legal difficulties arise, the CMPA is technically not an insurer.
In December 2008, Elizabeth Woodhouse was injured during a skiing trip with her spouse and grandson at a ski facility run by Snow Valley Resorts. The lawsuit that followed, Woodhouse v. Snow Valley Resorts, breaks new ground for waivers of liability in Ontario. Liability Forms Liability forms are legal documents that are intended to reduce a person or company’s risk of being liable for accidents …
A couple of recent cases from our Court of Appeal confirm that a limitation period can be stretched beyond the usual two years, but only if it would not be appropriate for a plaintiff to start the legal action earlier. In Ontario, the Limitation Act, 2002 governs the time limits for when a legal action needs to be filed. In most cases the usual rule is that a civil action must be filed within two years of when the event occurred. However, the two-year time frame will not start until the claim is “discovered”.
Recently, Justice Denny Thomas in Edmonton allowed television cameras inside the courtroom to broadcast his long-awaited decision in the Travis Vader murder case. His decision to allow cameras has stirred up the debate on whether or not to allow cameras into Canadian courtrooms. Broadcasting inside courtrooms is nothing new in the United States but is extremely rare in Canada. Many of us remember the O.J. Simpson trial …
Ontario’s minister of Children and Youth Services Michael Couteau was in the news recently for his plea to Toronto city council to lift a ban on road hockey in the city. The by-law in questions states that: “no person shall play or take part in any game or sport upon a roadway and, where there are sidewalks, no person upon roller-skates, in-line skates or a …
On Thursday, May 5, Ontario Health Minister Eric Hoskins announced plans to implement 12 recommendations to bolster accountability, regulation, quality and safety in the increasing number of non-hospital medical clinics in Ontario. As Mr. Hoskins stated: “As the [health] system evolves and patients increasingly receive care outside of hospitals in more accessible community settings, it is important that its oversight and regulation evolve to ensure …
