why Most Medical Malpractice Victims Never Recover a Dime - Part 7

Limit on Recovery for Pain and Suffering

The law imposes a limit to recovery of pain and suffering damages.  No matter how seriously injured you are, the maximum recovery you can obtain is currently $330,000.  This amount for pain and suffering might be awarded in such cases as catastrophic complete paralysis or severe brain damage.  This limit or cap has been set by the Supreme Court of Canada and is constantly adjusted for the effects of inflation.  The vast majority of awards for pain and suffering are well below this cap.

The types of cases which have large enough settlement value to justify investigation for merit and with which we have been successful include:

• birth injuries causing cerebral palsy
• delay in treating bacterial meningitis
• spinal cord or brain damage resulting in quadriplegia, paraplegia or other paralysis
• surgery resulting in serious damage to nearby structures or organs
• undiagnosed heart attacks
• other failures to diagnose serious conditions where timely intervention would have avoided a bad outcome
• pathology negligence, including cancer misdiagnosis
• wrongful death, where there is significant financial loss to surviving dependents (remember, the wrongful death laws in this province are backward and allow no damages for pain and suffering)