Examining whether former employees may be designated as professional witnesses and paid to prepare for and attend trial.
Joseph Dart
Joseph is a partner at Bergeron Clifford LLP. He graduated from Yale University in 2001, where he played for four years on the varsity hockey team, and Queen’s University Law School in 2005. He was called to the bar in 2006. After beginning his career as a crown attorney, he joined Bergeron Clifford in 2015, where he represents plaintiffs in negligence, medical malpractice and auto cases. He also coaches the moot court trial advocacy team at Queen’s Law at both the Arnup and Sopinka Cup annual competitions. As a proud OTLA member, he was recently elected to the Board of Directors for a three-year term.
St. Marthe v. O’Connor, 2021 ONCA 790
In this case, the plaintiff suffered soft tissue injuries that led to chronic pain and prevented him from working in the construction industry. The trial judge found in his favour and awarded $205,662 in damages plus costs and disbursements…
Hacopian-Armen Estate v. Mahmoud, 2021 ONCA 545
In this case, the plaintiff died in 2011 of stage IV uterine leiomyosarcoma (“uLMS”), which had metastasized to her lungs. The allegation at the centre of the lawsuit was that her gynecologist failed to perform a routine endometrial biopsy in 2009 and that, if he had, her cancer would have been detected at an early stage such that her death could have been avoided through proper treatment…
Lightfoot v. Hodgins et al, 2021 ONSC 1950
The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a proliferation of motions, generally by plaintiffs, to strike jury notices in personal injury cases so that trials can proceed virtually and on schedule. While decisions on such motions have gone both ways, depending on the facts and location of each case, timely access to justice is a recurring theme in each one. However, a recent decision out of Belleville may prompt a different kind of motion to strike a jury notice, one that targets cost effective access to justice…
Champoux v. Jefremova and Khodabandehloo, 2021 ONCA 92
In this case, the Court of Appeal found that the trial judge’s reasons for dismissing the claim were insufficient, did not permit proper appellate review and sent the matter back for retrial. The Court of Appeal also gave important reasons on the defendant’s attempt to withdrawal an admission made in a Request to Admit.
Saadi v. Silva, 2020 ONSC 6700 (CanLII)
In this case, after a series of early successes by Plaintiffs seeking to strike the jury, the recent decision of Justice Kimmel in Saadi v. Silva, is another in a growing list of cases where such requests have been denied.