Richard Halpern is a senior lawyer acting exclusively for injured people in medical negligence cases, with a special focus on infants injured at or around the time of birth. Richard is known across Canada for his expertise in birth injury cases, and is a founding member of the Birth Injury Lawyers Alliance. He has more than 30 years of experience representing seriously injured people.
Richard is known for tackling some of the most complex and challenging medical malpractice cases. He has lectured and written extensively on matters concerned with obstetrics, the cause of newborn injury, medical malpractice cases more generally, evidentiary issues, causation at law, and legal and trial strategies. He has delivered more than 80 presentations to professional groups.
With respect to birth-related injury to children, Richard has represented children with cerebral palsy, brain injury due to hypoglycemia, brain injury from elevated bilirubin, and children who have suffered loss of use of an arm from shoulder dystocia.
In 2015, Richard was the recipient of the Award for Distinguished Service to the legal profession, conferred by his peers at the Ontario Bar Association. Richard has been recognized by and listed in The Best Lawyers™ in Canada. He has been recognized in The Canadian Legal Lexpert® Directory as Most Frequently Recommended in both medical negligence and personal injury on behalf of plaintiffs.
Richard has acted in hundreds of medical malpractice cases. He has appeared in the Superior Court of Ontario and the Ontario Court of Appeal. He is also acting in a number of medical malpractice cases in other Canadian Provinces.
Richard is currently a member of The Holland Group, a group that promotes reforms in medical malpractice cases aimed at increasing access to justice and timely and equitable resolutions of medical malpractice claims. The Holland Group is chaired by former Ontario Court of Appeal Justice John Laskin.
Richard is a past President of the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association. He is a past member of the Judicial Advisory Committee on Judicial Appointments (GTA) appointed by the Federal Minister of Justice. This committee evaluated candidates for appointment to the Superior Court of Justice, the Ontario Court of Appeal, the Federal Court and the Federal Court of Appeal.
In addition to his Bachelor of Arts degree (BA) and Bachelor of Laws degree (LLB), Richard earned a Masters Degree in Law (LLM) in Civil Litigation at Osgoode Hall Law School. He is a member of the Advocates’ Society, the Ontario Trial Lawyers’ Association, the Ontario Bar Association, Litigation Counsel of America and the American Association of Justice.
Areas of Practice
- Medical Malpractice
- Birth Injury
Education
- Bachelor of Arts, University of Toronto (1979)
- Bachelor of Laws, University of Windsor (1982)
- Masters of Law (Civil Litigation), Osgoode Hall Law School (1998)
Honours and Awards of Distinction
- LEXPERT® Ranked Lawyer since 2008
- Listed in The Best Lawyers® in Canada since 2010
- Martindale-Hubbell® Ranked Lawyer
Professional Associations, Memberships & Volunteering
- Ontario Trial Lawyers Association
- Member of the Birth Trauma Litigation Group of the AAJ
- Founding Member of the Birth Injury Lawyers Alliance
- The Canadian Bar Association
- The Advocates’ Society
- American Association for Justice
- Past President of the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association (2007 – 2008)
- Member of the American Association for Access to Justice
Professional Experience – Contributions
Papers presented at continuing legal education seminars include:
- Intrapartum Pathways to Neonatal Neurologic Injury
- Medical Malpractice: Legal Causation and Obstetrics
- Crossing the Threshold
- Demonstrative Evidence
- Post-Operative Care
- Making Effective Use of Health Care Experts
- Litigating Auto Insurance Claims
- Reducing the Risk of Obstetric Malpractice
- Preventable Adverse Events: Medical Malpractice Litigation and Patient Safety
- Civil Procedure and Evidence
- The Plaintiff’s View of Auto Insurance Reform
- Expert Reports
Published Works
- Birth Trauma Litigation: Proving the Cause of Newborn Neurologic Injury
- Birth Trauma Litigation Complex, Controversial
- Major Accident Benefits Changes Come into Effect on June 1st, 2016
- Revisiting Intrapartum Pathways to Neonatal Neurologic Injury – A Lawyer’s View of the Medicine
- Intrapartum Pathways to Neonatal Neurologic Injury – A Lawyer’s View
- The Obstacles in Connecting Birth Trauma to Neurologic Injury
- Expert Evidence in Personal Injury Law – Panel Discussion
- Newborn Neurological Injury and Litigation: Medical-Legal Challenges to Causation
- Managing Risks in Maternity Care
- The Osgoode Certificate in Clinical Risk, Negligence and Claims Management in Health Care
- Auto Insurance Reform 2010
- The New Accident Benefits Schedule Transition Provisions
- Birth Trauma and the Duty of Care
- Automobile Insurance: Beyond the New Brunswick Border
- Ontario Proposed Auto Insurance Reforms (2010)
- Darcy Merkur & Richard Halpern, Ontario Proposed Auto Insurance Reforms (2010)
- Preserving Access to Justice: Resisting the Push to Restrict Tort Rights
- Timing of Asphyxial Injury and Birth Trauma
- Timing of Asphyxial and Birth Trauma
- Ontario Trial Lawyers Association – Advanced Medical Malpractice CLE
- Overview of Proposed Auto Insurance Reform 2009
- Medical Malpractice Damages Guardianship Issues
- Shoulder Dystocia
- Rooting out junk science a matter of good advocacy (Canada Lawyer Magazine)
