What is the standard of care in negligence in medical malpractice cases?

British Columbia, Canada


The following excerpt is from Mulherin v. Mihalick, 2007 BCSC 420 (CanLII):

As a general proposition, the standard of care in negligence is that set out by Major J. on behalf of the unanimous court in Ryan v. Victoria (City), 1999 CanLII 706 (SCC), [1999] 1 S.C.R 201 [“Ryan”], where he wrote at para. 28: Conduct is negligent if it creates an objectively unreasonable risk of harm. To avoid liability, a person must exercise the standard of care that would be expected of an ordinary, reasonable and prudent person in the same circumstances. The measure of what is reasonable depends on the facts of each case, including the likelihood of a known or foreseeable harm, the gravity of that harm, and the burden or cost which would be incurred to prevent the injury. In addition, one may look to external indicators of reasonable conduct, such as custom, industry practice, and statutory or regulatory standards.

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