Richard C. Halpern

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. He has more than 30 years of experience representing seriously injured people. Richard has a detailed understanding of the highly technical medical issues, particularly relating to birth injury cases. His experience allows him to provide meaningful advice and direction to families considering a medical negligence lawsuit following a review of the medical record.

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, and legal and trial strategies. He has delivered more than 70 presentations to professional groups in the last decade. One of his more recent papers is titled “Birth Trauma Litigation: Proving the Cause of Newborn Neurologic Injury”.

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. Richard has acted in hundreds of medical malpractice cases. He has achieved significant settlements for his clients, many exceeding $10,000,000, though past results are not necessarily indicative of future outcomes. 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 Associate Chief Justice of Ontario Coulter Osborne. Richard is also a member of a bench a bar committee established by the Ontario Court of Justice. The members of this committee included judges and senior lawyers and the committee meets to look at reforms to improve the administration of justice.

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 and the American Association of Justice.