According to a Lawyer's Daily article, as the COVID-19 pandemic claims the lives of older Canadians, the long-term care homes in which they reside are facing growing accusations of negligence. On April 29, national firm Diamond and Diamond Lawyers LLP filed the largest COVID-19-related class action lawsuit in Canada with the Ontario Superior Court.
"All of these cases always come down to the facts, but as a matter of law, the class members will have to prove that there was a breach of the standard of care expected in the industry,” said Windsor Law Professor and Class Action Clinic Director Jasminka Kalajdzic. “For example, if the evidence is that the nursing home did not have a pandemic plan in place that would be bad for the defendants. If the evidence is that they didn’t follow the pandemic plan or didn’t abide by the government guidelines that would also be very bad for the defendants.”
The article notes that in 2009, a class action certified by the Ontario Superior Court against the Ontario government and the city of Toronto following an outbreak of Legionnaire’s disease at a public nursing home in the city four years earlier resulted in a $1.2-million settlement for 135 class members.
But the class actions filed against long-term care homes are just “the tip of the iceberg — the beginning of a trend toward litigating any COVID-related issues,” said Kalajdzic. She states that such lawsuits have been launched in the U.S. involving insurance companies, universities and colleges regarding business and service disruptions caused by the pandemic.