Court File and Parties

COURT FILE NO.: CV-12-464218 DATE: 20200914 SUPERIOR COURT OF JUSTICE - ONTARIO

RE: ESTHER DUDAS, a mentally incapable person by her Power of Attorney and Litigation Guardian, CHARLES DUDAS, CHARLES DUDAS, BERENTINE DUDAS, HANNAH DUDAS and NADIA DUDAS, Plaintiffs AND: ANNA WOO, MEREDITH LINGHORN and TORONTO GENERAL HOSPITAL, Defendants

BEFORE: SANFILIPPO J.

COUNSEL: Paul Harte, Ron Bohm and Maria Damiano, for the Plaintiffs Erica Baron and Stephanie Sugar, for the Defendant Anna Woo

HEARD: September 11, 2020

TRIAL MANAGEMENT ENDORSEMENT

[1] The trial in this action is scheduled to commence on September 17, 2020 and continue for ten days. The trial is proceeding against only Anna Woo, the action having been dismissed against all other defendants by the Order of August 19, 2020 issued by Gans J., the case management judge.

[2] In case management, the parties consented to the trial being conducted virtually. On August 28, 2020, the parties confirmed to the case management judge that they would work amongst themselves to ensure that the proper technology is available for a virtual trial.

[3] I convened a Trial Management Conference on September 11, 2020 and, based on the matters addressed, direct as follows:

(a) The parties shall continue in their collaborative efforts to ensure that they have the proper technology in place for the trial to be conducted virtually, commencing on September 17, 2020 at 10:00 am and continuing for ten days.

(b) The Plaintiffs shall provide a folder at www.sync.com for the purpose of documents being passed to the Trial Judge during trial. The Plaintiffs shall provide the link to the folder to the Defendant so that they also have access, and to the Court at the opening of trial. I will refer to this as the Judge’s Document Folder.

(c) The uploading of documents into the Judge’s Document Folder does not constitute their filing into the Trial Record. Documents will enter the Trial Record through the Court Registrar as tendered by the parties, either electronically or in paper copy, in the course of the trial.

(d) For the opening of trial, the parties shall have prepared the following:

(i) Agreed Statement of Facts;

(ii) Joint Document Book, along with statement of any agreement on authenticity;

(iii) List of Authorities, with cases hyperlinked;

(iv) Chronology;

(v) Glossary of Terms;

(vi) Any aide memoires;

(vii) For the Plaintiffs, written opening submissions. Likewise for the Defendant but to be provided at the time that the Defendant chooses to present her oral opening submissions.

(viii) The Report to Trial Judge form, completed collaboratively, as set out in para. 4, below.

(e) The parties shall exchange cost outlines, prior to the start of trial. The cost outlines shall not be provided to the Trial Judge until the argument of costs at the conclusion of the trial. The cost outlines may contain per diem estimates of the cost of anticipated trial days not yet incurred.

[4] The parties shall complete a “Report to Trial Judge”, under Rule 50.08, in the form attached to this Trial Management Endorsement (Word format), ideally collaboratively but if not, first by the Plaintiffs and then delivered by them to the Defendant for her input. The parties shall provide the completed document to the Trial Judge at the opening of trial in Word format, unsigned, and signed by counsel on behalf of the parties and saved in pdf. The parties shall be prepared to address, at the opening of trial, any disagreement between them regarding the content of the Report to Trial Judge.

[5] The parties requested that the Court make available a facility for experimenting with and testing of the virtual platform by which the Trial will be conducted: a “practice run”. I have scheduled this to take place on September 15, 2020 at 2:00 pm, a time stated to be convenient to the parties, using video connection coordinates that will be provided separately by the Court. The virtual courtroom will be hosted by court staff. The parties are encouraged to consider the following:

(a) providing the witnesses, in advance of trial, with hard copies of the documents expected to be entered as exhibits and relied on at trial, to reduce the reliance on the “Share Screen” tool in the video platform;

(b) designating one lawyer for each of the Plaintiffs and the Defendant as Lead Counsel, for specific phases of the trial or for the entirety of the trial, as the parties are advised, so that Lead Counsel will have a constant video screen presence during the trial and other counsel and trial participants would be non-video participants. This will allow for larger images on the video screen of the witness and of the Lead Counsel active at that time, which will be useful throughout but particularly helpful when the Shared Screen function is used.

(c) providing the Court Registrar with hard copies of the documents expected to be marked as exhibits, so that they might be marked contemporaneous with the entry of exhibits virtually during trial, to result in both a hard copy exhibit collection and an electronic version. Any such materials can be provided to the Court in advance of trial by delivery to Judge’s Administration at the Courthouse, 361 University Avenue, Toronto.

[6] If the parties identify technical or technological issues that impact their ability to initiate and conduct a virtual trial in this action, or that have the potential to unduly complicate or lengthen the time currently estimated for trial, the parties shall request a further Trial Management Conference, that would then be conducted on September 16, 2020 at 3:00 pm, by videoconference. The parties may request this further Trial Management Conference by email to the Trial Coordinator, with copy to my Judicial Assistant. Should the parties identify issues with the conduct of this trial virtually, the parties may consider, and speak to conducting this trial as a ‘hybrid trial’, with the lawyers present in the courtroom, documents in physical and/or electronic format and witnesses (some or all) testifying remotely.

[7] Absent a request for a further Trial Management Conference, under para. 6 hereof, the parties are presumed to have in place the technical and technological requirements necessary to commence the virtual trial on September 17, 2020 at 10:00 am.

[8] The requirement of preparation, issuance and entry of a formal order is hereby dispensed with in accordance with Rule 77.07(6).

Sanfilippo J.

Date: September 14, 2020