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Accident and Injury Lawyer Ches Crosbie Meets the Press

Appeal decision protects some medical information: lawyer


Posted on Jun 23, 2010

The Telegram

June 22, 2010

  

A recent Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court of Appeal decision should help prevent "fishing expeditions" in personal injury cases, says a St. John's lawyer.

"It's a strong corrective," said Ches Crosbie of the recent decision in an auto accident case.

"It increases the level of protection that people have in requiring confidential information of a medical or financial nature, unless there's demonstrated relevance to it."

In the case, Crosbie had appealed a decision on a court application that would have required his clients alleging injury to hand over detailed medical and financial information from three years prior to the December 2005 accident.

That included particulars on every doctor's visit, as well as to other health professionals and prescriptions.

The request was in response to an initial statement of claim that did not detail specifics of the personal injuries.

"The result of the application judge's decision was to legitimate too broad a range of questions at that stage of the proceeding," the Appeal Court decision reads.

"In so doing, he gave little or no consideration as to whether the plaintiffs' personal privacy was unnecessarily or disproportionally intruded upon."

The court said the search for information could have provoked "potentially unnecessary intrusion into the plaintiffs' private affairs."

The three-justice panel - Denis Roberts, Derek Green and Gale Welsh - said both sides should bear their own costs in the matter, considering the nature of the initial statement of claim.

Crosbie said it's been general practice in this jurisdiction to make a broad claim.


 

 

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