Services
Professional Regulation
We routinely represent allied health and regulated health providers, both individually and through professional associations/insurers, on health College complaints, investigations, registration, discipline matters, HPARB appeals and judicial reviews. We most frequently represent dentists, nurses, social workers, pharmacists, psychologists and dental hygienists, but have the expertise to support practitioners from all 26 regulatory health Colleges. Learn more about the work we do with regulated health professionals here.
We are also available to support regulatory health Colleges as litigation counsel or independent legal counsel on a variety of matters.
Mental Health Law
We are mental health law lawyers, routinely representing hospitals and physicians at the Consent and Capacity Board and Ontario Review Board, as well as their respective appeals to the Superior Court and Court of Appeal. Both John and Jessica have worked as students and lawyers at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. In particular, Jessica has gained extensive experience in legal issues surrounding the provision of mental health services, including complex capacity, treatment, policy and privacy issues, which are further supported by her masters degree in mental health. Jessica also has experience representing healthcare organizations at Coroner’s inquests.
Tribunal Litigation
The firm routinely acts as counsel for parties before administrative tribunals in the healthcare context, including the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, the Health Services Appeal and Review Board, the Health Professions Appeal and Review Board, the Consent and Capacity Board, the Ontario Review Board, the Landlord Tenant Board and the Ontario Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal.
Civil Litigation & Investigations
We are experienced civil litigators and malpractice defence lawyers, having spent a large part of our career defending hospitals and healthcare providers on complex medical negligence claims. Together, we have acted as counsel at all levels of civil courts in Ontario, as well as at the Supreme Court of Canada. This includes representing clients through the discovery process, mediation and trial. We can represent individuals either directly or through professional associations/insurers and are available to act as co-counsel for other firms on health-related issues. We also support clients on investigations into clinical or behavioural matters prior to the commencement of litigation.
Privacy Law
Privacy is an important and constant principle in healthcare delivery. The firm routinely works within the relevant privacy legislation, including the Personal Health Information Protection Act, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act and the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. We are able to assist clients as health privacy lawyers on privacy compliance, policies, breaches and litigation (including with the Information and Privacy Commissioner).
Corporate and Research Support
With her background working at Ontario Health, the government agency in healthcare, Jessica has particular experience supporting clients on corporate and research issues, including contract drafting and review (such as data sharing agreements and research agreements), compliance and governance issues and working with Ontario Health Teams. Jessica has her CORE Certificate on Research Ethics.
Medical Staff Privileging
We represent hospitals in privileging disputes with physicians, dentists, midwives and nurse practitioners. We have the experience necessary to litigate these matters at the MAC, Hospital Board, HPARB or Court, but we work closely with our hospital clients to explore proactive and alternative outcomes that help keep costs down and minimize disruption to clinical teams. We also have experience conducting independent workplace investigations in various contexts to support other privileging counsel on their files.
2SLGBTQ+ Rights Litigation
McIntyre Szabo PC routinely takes on litigation cases at the intersection of health law and 2SLGBTQ+ rights. For example, John acted as lead intervention counsel for Egale Canada and JusticeTrans in the Jordan Peterson judicial review before the Divisional Court in 2023. John and Jessica are currently acting for KS, a trans and non-binary individual challenging OHIP for coverage of their gender affirming surgery (the HSARB decision that is being appealed can be found here). John is also an active member of the Legal Issues Committee of Egale Canada. John holds a certificate in LGBTQ public health from Johns Hopkins University.
Appellate Law & Interventions
John is a former judicial law clerk at the Court of Appeal for Ontario, and has argued multiple precedent-setting appeals. The lawyers at the firm appear at the Court of Appeal on a range of appeals, including on Consent and Capacity Board and Ontario Review Board matters. We are also particularly excited to work with public health interest groups and 2SLGBTQ+ advocacy organizations as intervener on important legal cases with an impact on the healthcare system.
General Legal and Risk Advice
Healthcare organizations (such as hospitals, retirement homes, long-term care homes and clinics) often need quick and reliable advice on day-to-day matters, including on legal, policy, clinical, operational and risk management issues, such as whether or not to provide requested information to the police or how to navigate complex disagreements with patients. With our background and experience in health law and public health, we are able to help our clients navigate these issues from a practical perspective that takes into account the realities of the healthcare system. We also assist our clients with reviewing and drafting organizational or clinical policies.
In-House Supports
We assist in-house hospital and health care organization legal teams experiencing a period of high volume, transition and/or vacations by acting as interim legal counsel and training/mentoring new staff when hired on. We are available to train and support executive, risk management and clinical teams as well. In these roles, we assist as needed with the ultimate goal of making ourselves obsolete as the new team builds capacity. As an example, John has acted as interim clinical legal counsel at CAMH.