Background
Michele Warner is an associate in our Toronto office who was called to the Ontario Bar in 2005. She was educated at the University of Western Ontario (B.S.W. 1995), Wilfrid Laurier University (M.S.W. 1996), and the University of Toronto Faculty of Law (J.D. 2004). In 2010, she obtained a Certificate in Mental Health Law from Osgoode Hall Law School.
Prior to attending law school, she worked as a social worker in the fields of mental health and child protection. From 1999 to 2001 she worked in Kenya for an international development agency, developing and implementing programs for children with disabilities in conjunction with local community members.
Areas of Practice
· Health Law (with a focus on Mental Health Law)
· Civil Litigation
· Administrative Law
· Privacy Law
Professional Experience
· Defends hospitals and hospital staff in medical malpractice and other civil lawsuits, as counsel to the Healthcare Insurance Reciprocal of Canada (HIROC).
· Represents forensic psychiatric facilities before the Ontario Review Board and on appeals of those decisions at the Court of Appeal.
· Represents health care providers before the Consent and Capacity Board (including reviews of findings of incapacity, involuntary admissions, substitute decision-making, and community treatment orders) and on appeals of those decisions at the Superior Court.
· Represents individual health care providers in complaints before their professional bodies, and in reviews of those decisions by the Health Professions Appeal and Review Board.
· Represents hospital clients at Coroner's Inquests and in proceedings before the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario.
· Provides general legal advice on a variety of issues (including privacy, consent to treatment, mental health issues, and adverse event management), support, and policy review to various hospitals, health care providers, and children's mental health centres;
· Has acted as consultant to hospital client regarding readiness for implementation of privacy legislation obligations
· Regularly conducts workshops, seminars, and in-services on various medico-legal issues for hospital clients.
Professional and Community Activities
· Executive Member of the Canadian Bar Association (Ontario) and Co-Chair of the CLE Committee, Health Law Section
· Member of the Medico-Legal Society of Toronto
· Member of the Advocates Society
· Member, Ontario Association of Social Workers
· Volunteer trainer and community presenter for Voluntary Service Overseas, an international development agency
· School Co-ordinator for BLG Reads to Kids
Publications and Presentations
· Editor of "Quality Assurance Documentation at Oral Discovery" (October 2010), Health Law Bulletin published by Borden Ladner Gervais LLP.
· Co-author of "A Legal Perspective on Documentation and Charting" (October 2006) 8 R.M.C.H.C. 5.
· Author of "The Impact of the Supreme Court of Canada's Decision in Chaoulli v. Quebec (Attorney General), (June 2005), Hospital Law Bulletin published by Borden Ladner Gervais LLP.
· Author of "Serving Immigrant and Refugee Children in the Wake of the Tsunami Disaster: Challenges for School Boards" published in Education Law News (Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, Spring 2005) and Capsle Comments (Canadian Association for the Practical Study of Law in Education, March 2005).
· Co-chair and instructor for Ontario Hospital Association/Borden Ladner Gervais LLP "Principles and Applications of Health Law Course" (2007 - present).
· Presentations to staff at various hospitals on a broad range of topics, including: Consent & Capacity, Substitute Decision-Making, Coroner's Inquests, Legal Importance of Documentation and Charting, Legal Issues in Trauma Medicine, Privacy of Patient Health Information, Disclosure of Adverse Events, Overview of the Legal Process, Communications with Police, Medico-Legal Issues in the School Context, and Investigation of Clinical Outcomes.