Martin, Timothy U.

As a medical malpractice lawyer and partner at Pacific Medical Law, Linda A. Wong quarterbacks litigation teams that restrict their trial work to medical and hospital negligence claims. Linda acts for severely injured people and people who have lost a family member because of medical or hospital negligence. Prior to partnering with Paul McGivern to create Pacific Medical (2007) Law, Linda was a partner at Nathan Smith Law, at the time the only law firm in British Columbia with a practice exclusively dedicated to acting for plaintiffs in medical malpractice, hospital malpractice and wrongful death cases.

Linda is an invited Canadian medical malpractice panelist and speaker on a specialized type of hospital care by doctors at the summer convention of the AAJ, a trial advocacy group with members worldwide, and a network of U.S. and Canadian affiliates involved in diverse areas of trial advocacy.  This is the first time that a lawyer from Pacific Medical (2007) Law has been invited to speak to this international trial lawyers’ group that promotes justice and fairness for individuals - the hallmark of Linda’s 30 years of acting only for individuals and their families in their pursuit of justice within the Canadian legal system.

In 2013 Linda A. Wong and Brenda Osmond successfully negotiated a settlement of $5,500,000 for a newborn baby who needs 24 hour a day care, special equipment, custom power wheelchairs and power lifts, physiotherapy, speech and language therapy, handicapped accessible housing and transportation.  Lawyers Susanne Raab and Natalia Ivolgina also assisted in this settlement. The injured infant will never work, walk or speak because of brain injury and severe mental disability from hypoxia, anoxia and metabolic changes from a hospital malpractice medication error:

The Public Guardian and Trustee in recommending approval of the settlement said:         

…a very substantial body of work, which was focused, intelligent and reflective of significant experience and talent on the part of Ms. Wong and other members of the Law Firm…an excellent settlement…this was high risk litigation and the results were far from predictable…in the medical malpractice field, (this) case was novel… involved highly complex and novel medical issues…(and) has been expertly handled…the settlement provides an excellent result for the infant and her family…

Highlights of Linda’s counsel experience include the hard-fought infant cases for Travis Strachan and Benjamin Fullerton who both suffered catastrophic brain damage following a preventable injury during birth. She was also counsel on appeal for Mr. Sam whose liver failed because his liver function was not properly monitored and for Mr. Thurston who was injured because of improper diagnosis and inappropriate treatment of his cardiac condition.  Successfully negotiating out-of-court settlements is another aspect of Linda’s trial work.

Linda has successfully negotiated settlements for people with catastrophic injuries including paralysis and chronic pain from a failure to diagnose a spinal infection, chronic pain from an iatrogenic sinus injury that was not diagnosed for many months, death from a subdural hemorrhage that was not diagnosed in time to allow treatment, loss of a limb from failure to diagnose compartment syndrome, a stroke from failure to diagnose and treat an iatrogenic cerebral artery injury, and death from a cerebral hemorrhage following failure to diagnose and transport to hospital.

Linda knows firsthand the schooling, funding and parenting challenges that families with a child with disabilities face. As a volunteer with a high level advocacy group, Linda produced and researched urgently needed educational resource material that were distributed to school districts in BC. She also organized the first school-based group for families of special needs children in Vancouver. For another group formed to preserve services and funding for BC schoolchildren, she was the media spokesperson and met with the Minster of Education and other government officials.

Finally, Linda believes in fostering greater understanding of medicine and the law.  She spends a significant amount of time teaching medical malpractice and attending specialized conferences in obstetrical and general medicine and law.  She is a medical malpractice law practice advisor for the BC Canadian Bar Association practice advisory panel.  She chaired the 2011 Medicine and the Law conference, spoke on catastrophic brain injury costs of future care law at the 2011 Trial Lawyers Association of BC Brain Injury Conference,  and she developed and chaired a seminar on the Health Care Costs Recovery Act. Linda also lectures for the Trial Lawyers Association of BC and the Law Society of BC's Continuing Legal Education programs. She has written for the Verdict magazine published by the Trial Lawyers Association of British Columbia and lectured for the Vancouver Hospital & Health Sciences Centre Lunch and Learn series. In addition, Linda is a member of two specialized AAJ litigation groups: Birth Trauma Litigation and Medical Negligence, and has mentored new and immigrant legal professionals. By continuing to learn, teach and mentor Linda brings a well-rounded caring legal perspective to the clients who have entrusted their complex medico-legal problems to her.