Health Law

We advise and defend health professionals, institutions, and associations on medical, regulatory, and liability issues in Canada’s complex health care system.
Key Contacts
Poirier CarolinePrather ValerieStratton Barbara
Hospital room

Overview

Canada's highly regulated health care system involves multiple stakeholders and is often a contentious, controversial environment in which to operate. The medical community is acutely aware of this and looks for ways to practise medicine safely despite circumstances and finances that often result in competing priorities and a need for compromise. And where compromise fails, litigation often follows.

Bennett Jones covers all aspects of health law, advising professional associations, health-care institutions and the medical professions on a variety of claims alleging wrongful death, personal injury, professional negligence and professional misconduct. Having acted for the Canadian Medical Protective Association, as well as health-care professionals, we bring decades of experience and knowledge of medical practice and procedure to our work. Our clients include hospitals, medical service providers and health regions. In addition, we represent both plaintiffs and defendants in personal injury matters.

,,They have quite deep expertise in the health sector, absolutely, they have very high expertise in this area.,,

What Clients Say

Client Work

A consortium of six provincial and three territorial governments in a C$32.5-billion resolution with the tobacco industry to recover the healthcare costs associated with smoking
Bard
in the defence of multiple class actions and 200+ individual mass tort product liability actions relating to design and/or manufacturing defects that make various hernia mesh products unsuitable for implantation
Bard Peripheral Vascular
in a multi-party product liability action involving three plaintiffs, various doctors and various hospitals, concerning the alleged design and/or manufacturing defects of the Lutonix 014 balloon
Bard
two product liability class actions in Quebec and British Columbia relating to Bard port products
Becton, Dickinson Canada
in a BC multi-party product liability action involving the plaintiff, an eye specialist, an eye specialist clinic, a compounding pharmacy, a drug manufacturer and a drug and medical devices supplier
Canadian Medical Protective Association
retained to defend a matter relating to the death of a baby shortly after birth
Canadian Medical Protective Association
retained to defend a lawsuit by plaintiffs relating to injuries suffered by their child during birth
Canadian Medical Protective Association
relating to a complex medical negligence claim was brought against two intensivists
Canadian Medical Protective Association
connected to a closely covered and high-profile conviction of the plaintiff’s roommate for aggravated and sexual assault, and designation as a dangerous offender
DrFirst
in its entry into the Canadian market
Pharmascience
in a proposed class action in the Federal Court alleging industry-wide price fixing and market allocation of generic drugs
Pharmascience
in defending a claim by GlaxoSmithKline concerning an alleged breach of their settlement agreement regarding the marketing and sale of valacyclovir in Canada
Appellant/defence counsel, in an appeal to the Alberta Court of Appeal, which successfully overturned the trial judgement on issues of informed consent in a medical malpractice case. Martin v. Findlay
Defendant physicians, in two medical malpractice trials involving allegations of negligence relating to the management of shoulder dystocia during childbirth. Skeels Estate v. ...
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Successfully brought a non-suit motion in a medical malpractice trial relating to a radical cystectomy, urethrectomy and incidental appendectomy. Kainth v Capital Health Authority

Recognitions

Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory
Most Frequently Recommended, Medical Negligence (Calgary)
Consistently Recommended, Medical Negligence (Edmonton)

Chambers Canada
Ranked, Healthcare: Contentious
Prather Valerie

Valerie R. Prather KC

Partner   •   Co-Head of Health Practice

Stratton Barbara

Barbara J. Stratton KC

Edmonton Managing Partner  •   Co-Head of Health Practice

Your Guide to Legal Solutions: Health Law

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The Bennett Jones Story

At Bennett Jones, legal solutions are our starting point. What drives us forward is knowing our clients inside and out—their ambitions, obstacles and success metrics.

For more than a century, we have shaped outcomes that matter in business, in law and in the broader Canadian landscape. And our commitment extends beyond legal matters: we invest deeply in the communities in which we live and work.