Daphne is a civil litigator specializing in health law. Focused on advising and representing healthcare providers and their employees, Daphne is known for her ability to resolve difficult and complex cases. She has a strong track record of achieving creative and confidential settlements for her clients while preserving reputations and community relationships.
Daphne has particular expertise in issues involving the treatment of children and youth, consent and capacity, and end of life issues. She appears before administrative tribunals such as the Consent and Capacity Board and the Health Professions Appeal and Review Board, and has appeared before Courts at all levels including the Supreme Court of Canada.
Experience
- Defends hospitals and their employees in medical malpractice lawsuits on retainer with the Healthcare Insurance Reciprocal of Canada (HIROC).
- Acts as counsel for healthcare facilities at coroner's inquests by direct retainer, including those involving multiple deaths.
- Provides ongoing advice, legal support and policy review on matters that include capacity and consent to treatment, child and adolescent health and end-of-life issues.
- Acts as counsel to health providers in hearings before the Consent and Capacity Board and related appeals.
- Retained frequently as counsel to individual health providers involved in complaints or disciplinary hearings before their professional bodies, and in reviews of those decisions by the Health Professions Appeal and Review Board.
- Successfully argued the early and authoritative cases granting summary judgment dismissing cases against hospitals and physicians on the basis of absence of expert opinion – Barber v. Mustard [1993 O.J. No. 2872]; Claus v. Wolfman, 2000 CanLII 22728 (OCA); Reid v. Livingstone, 2004 CanLII 13020 (ONSC).
- Appeared before the Supreme Court of Canada in Starson v. Swayze, 2003 SCC 32, as counsel to the intervenor, The Schizophrenia Society of Canada.
- Represented Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre during the first stage of the Rasouli litigation, after which the hospital was no longer a party (Cuthbertson v. Rasouli, 2013 SCC 53; upholding 2011 ONCA 482; upholding 2011 ONSC 1500).
- Represented the applicant hospital in the case of Hamilton Health Sciences Corporation v. D.H., 2014 ONCJ 603, regarding a parent refusing chemotherapy for a First Nations child in favour of traditional medicines.
- Represented St. Mary’s General Hospital in the case of Ferreira v. St. Mary’s General Hospital, 2018 ONCA 247, an end of life case in which the Hospital was awarded substantial indemnity costs against a lawyer who improperly interfered with a family’s decision to withdraw life support from a critically brain injured patient.
- Represented Humber River Hospital in the case of Ouanounou v. Humber River Hospital et al, 2018 ONSC 6511, concerning a religious objection to a declaration of death by neurological criteria “brain death”.
- Defends hospitals and their employees in medical malpractice lawsuits on retainer with the Healthcare Insurance Reciprocal of Canada (HIROC).
- Acts as counsel for healthcare facilities at coroner's inquests by direct retainer, including those involving multiple deaths.
- Provides ongoing advice, legal support and policy review on matters that include capacity and consent to treatment, child and adolescent health and end-of-life issues.
- Acts as counsel to health providers in hearings before the Consent and Capacity Board and related appeals.
- Retained frequently as counsel to individual health providers involved in complaints or disciplinary hearings before their professional bodies, and in reviews of those decisions by the Health Professions Appeal and Review Board.
- Successfully argued the early and authoritative cases granting summary judgment dismissing cases against hospitals and physicians on the basis of absence of expert opinion – Barber v. Mustard [1993 O.J. No. 2872]; Claus v. Wolfman, 2000 CanLII 22728 (OCA); Reid v. Livingstone, 2004 CanLII 13020 (ONSC).
- Appeared before the Supreme Court of Canada in Starson v. Swayze, 2003 SCC 32, as counsel to the intervenor, The Schizophrenia Society of Canada.
- Represented Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre during the first stage of the Rasouli litigation, after which the hospital was no longer a party (Cuthbertson v. Rasouli, 2013 SCC 53; upholding 2011 ONCA 482; upholding 2011 ONSC 1500).
- Represented the applicant hospital in the case of Hamilton Health Sciences Corporation v. D.H., 2014 ONCJ 603, regarding a parent refusing chemotherapy for a First Nations child in favour of traditional medicines.
- Represented St. Mary’s General Hospital in the case of Ferreira v. St. Mary’s General Hospital, 2018 ONCA 247, an end of life case in which the Hospital was awarded substantial indemnity costs against a lawyer who improperly interfered with a family’s decision to withdraw life support from a critically brain injured patient.
- Represented Humber River Hospital in the case of Ouanounou v. Humber River Hospital et al, 2018 ONSC 6511, concerning a religious objection to a declaration of death by neurological criteria “brain death”.
