Richard Charles 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 records.

Richard is a founding member of the Birth Injury Lawyers Alliance (BILA). BILA was formed by a group of lawyers from across Canada to promote the effective representation of children and families affected by avoidable injuries to children occurring at or around the time of birth. BILA members meet regularly to share strategies, review scientific literature, and develop best practices.

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 90 presentations to professional groups, including lawyers and health care providers. Richard has written a paper called “Birth Trauma Litigation: Proving the Cause of Newborn Neurologic Injury”, an essential read for lawyers acting for children injured around the time of birth. He has also recently written a critique of new obstetrical guidelines, called “Fetal Surveillance in Labour, a Review of SOCG 2020 Guideline 396: Oversights, Omissions and Opportunities Squandered”.

Recently, Richard has taken on the complex issue of causation in tort law. He has written a comprehensive paper exploring the roots of causation, called “Causation on Trial – A Call for Change in How We Think About Causation in Tort”. He has written a second paper on causation called “What Should the Causal Questions Look Like”.