Background

Suzanne Courchesne is a partner at our Montréal office. Suzanne was admitted to the Québec Bar in 1989 and is a graduate of the Université Laval law school.

She is the regional leader of our Health Law Group in Montréal.

Areas of practice

• Suzanne is specialized in Health Law. She practises in litigation, more specifically in professional and civil liability and insurance.
• She defends health establishments in liability proceedings, including several class actions, and regularly pleads before all Québec courts.
• She also represented 12 health care establishments in a class action resulting from delays in radiotherapy treatments for breast cancer and in addition has represented the Agence de la santé et des services sociaux de Montréal before both the Superior Court and the Court of Appeal in an application for authorization of a class action based on the access to mental health care.

Rankings and Recognitions

• Selected by peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in Canada 2012 (Personal Injury Litigation)

Recent teaching activities, conferences and presentations

• "Un guide pratique pour effectuer un rappel de patients : meilleures pratiques pour éviter des litiges", Conference on medical and hospital liability, Canadian Institute, May 2005;
• "Le rappel des patients: responsabilités et aspects légaux", Québec Summit on Patient Safety, Canadian Institute, April 2008;
• "Le regard des tribunaux sur les obligations des établissements de santé", Health Law Symposium, February 2009;
• Teaching activity : "Les recours collectifs et la santé publique", presentation given in the Health Law Master's program of the Université de Sherbrooke, November 2009;
• "Les présomptions de fait et le domaine de la responsabilité médico-hospitalière", Canadian Bar Association, Québec division, December 2009;
• "Les limites des ressources dans le secteur de la santé et les enjeux juridiques qui en découlent", Health Law Symposium, June 2010;
• "Le dossier de l'usager: enjeux actuels en matière d'accès et de confidentialité", Health Law Symposium, June 2011.

Professional and community activities

• Member of the Canadian Bar Association, Health Law and Insurance Law Sections
• Member of the Clinical and Ethical committee of the CSSS Pierre-Boucher in Longueuil (2000-2008)
• Member of the Research and Ethics committee of the CHUM (2004-2010)
• Member (since 2004) and chair (since 2006) of the Research and Ethics committee of Héma-Québec
• Executive member of the National Health Law section of the Canadian Bar Association (2006-2009)
• Member of the Liaison with the public committee of the Montréal Bar (since 2006)