{"id":14893,"date":"2020-10-23T12:18:55","date_gmt":"2020-10-23T16:18:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/?p=14893"},"modified":"2020-11-17T12:33:15","modified_gmt":"2020-11-17T17:33:15","slug":"law-firm-will-proceed-with-legal-action-against-long-term-care-homes-after-covid-19-deaths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/index.php\/law-firm-will-proceed-with-legal-action-against-long-term-care-homes-after-covid-19-deaths\/","title":{"rendered":"Law firm will proceed with legal action against long-term care homes after COVID-19 deaths"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(October 22, 2020)<\/p>\n<p>By: Allan Benner, St. Catharines Standard<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-block-container\">New provincial legislation that may protect long-term care homes from COVID-19 related lawsuits won\u2019t stop an Oakville-based law firm from pursuing nine actions it has filed so far, including a class-action lawsuit filed against the owners of Lundy Manor in Niagara Falls.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-block-container\">But the legislation introduced for first reading on Tuesday \u2014 Bill 218, the Supporting Ontario\u2019s Recovery Act \u2014 may make it harder to sue by requiring proof of \u201cgross negligence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-block-container\">\u201cI\u2019ve been practising law for 35 years now and I\u2019ve never had a case where I\u2019ve had to prove gross negligence \u2026 It\u2019s not very well defined,\u201d said Gary Will, a managing partner from Will Davidson LLP.<\/p>\n<div class=\"seo-media-query undefined\">\n<div class=\"c-googleadslot__wrapper\">\n<p class=\"text-block-container\">\u201cAnd why are you forcing these poor people to prove to a higher standard? \u2026 It\u2019s going to make it very difficult for people to succeed on their claims.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-block-container\">The legislation if passed would be retroactive to the start of the pandemic on March 17, and require people harmed as a result of exposure to the coronavirus to prove gross negligence on behalf of the long-term care home operator, rather than the current standard, which is ordinary negligence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-block-container\">\u201cNegligence has been the cornerstone of our law going back over 100 years,\u201d Will said. \u201cNow they\u2019re saying, you can have a bad result. You can have died because of substandard care, but it doesn\u2019t matter because we\u2019re immunizing that bad conduct, or we\u2019re requiring you to prove your case at a higher level.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-block-container\">Nevertheless, he said, his firm will proceed with legal action it has started.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-block-container\">In addition to the suit against Lundy Manor and its parent company Oxford Living, Will\u2019s law firm launched class-action lawsuits against several long-term care providers throughout the GTA where numerous COVID-19 related deaths have occurred.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-related-inline\">\n<div class=\"c-related-articles\" data-lpos=\"ymbii|1\">\n<p class=\"text-block-container\">For each of those claims, he said, the law firm did allege gross negligence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-block-container\">The claims against the long-term care homes have yet to be proven in court.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-block-container\">The Ontario Health Coalition issued a statement Wednesday calling Bill 218 \u201cmorally reprehensible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-block-container\">\u201cWe are calling for this bill to be defeated,\u201d said the organization\u2019s executive director, <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><a style=\"color: #3366ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.stcatharinesstandard.ca\/news\/niagara-region\/2020\/10\/22\/law-firm-will-proceed-with-legal-action-against-long-term-care-homes-after-covid-19-deaths.html\">Natalie Mehra<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-block-container\">The New Democratic Party also issued statements opposing the proposed legislation, sharing concerns of families who have lost loved ones in long-term care homes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-block-container\">Niagara Centre MPP Jeff Burch called it a \u201cwrong-headed move.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-block-container\">\u201cThey should be concentrating on protecting seniors against COVID,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-block-container\">Premier Doug Ford has offered assurances that long-term care home operators will still be held accountable.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-block-container\">On Wednesday, Ford said: \u201cBy no means are we going to protect the negligence of long-term care providers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-block-container\">Although the province has said its legislation was designed to protect front-line workers and small businesses who are following public health rules and where COVID-19 exposure may occur inadvertently, Will said it also diminishes the deterrents that civil law offers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-block-container\">\u201cIf they\u2019re thinking that this bill is necessary to make things better and easier to reopen the economy or to provide a better level of care to people in long-term care homes, I mean it\u2019s just the opposite effect because it really protects the bad actors.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-block-container\">Will said he hopes the government will back down from implementing the legislation, \u201cbecause this law should never pass.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-block-container\">\u201cI hope it can be defeated if enough people rise up and complain about it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-block-container\">Lundy Manor did not respond to requests for an interview Thursday.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><a style=\"color: #3366ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.stcatharinesstandard.ca\/news\/niagara-region\/2020\/10\/22\/law-firm-will-proceed-with-legal-action-against-long-term-care-homes-after-covid-19-deaths.html\">Click here for original article<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(October 22, 2020) By: Allan Benner, St. Catharines Standard New provincial legislation that may protect long-term care homes from COVID-19 related lawsuits won\u2019t stop an Oakville-based law firm from pursuing nine actions it has filed so far, including a class-action lawsuit filed against the owners of Lundy Manor in Niagara Falls. But the legislation introduced [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ohc-in-the-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Law firm will proceed with legal action against long-term care homes after COVID-19 deaths - Ontario Health Coalition<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"(October 22, 2020) By: Allan Benner, St. Catharines Standard New provincial legislation that may protect long-term care homes from COVID-19 related\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/index.php\/law-firm-will-proceed-with-legal-action-against-long-term-care-homes-after-covid-19-deaths\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Law firm will proceed with legal action against long-term care homes after COVID-19 deaths - 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