It could still be a few more years before a $20-million lawsuit against the City of Windsor and Greater Essex County District School Board goes to trial.
The case was filed last year after student Madison Arsenault was impaled in the head with a sawed-off golf club while playing at the Ford Test Track during gym class. The freak accident caused severe brain damage.
"She's a little girl who has beat all odds, she's managed to have some ability to walk, she still has absolutely no feeling on the left side of her body but through her rehabilitation has been able to take some steps," says Lawyer Jennifer Bezaire.
Bezaire says Arsenault's recovery continues and until they have a better handle on a long-term prognosis the trial cannot proceed.
"It really will depend on how Madison recovers and whether or not she reaches a plateau in the near future. Until we get to a point where her doctors can give us a future prognosis the lawsuit will likely continue to go on," says Bezaire.
Bezaire says her team is currently trying to get the unredacted Windsor police and Ministry of Labour files as part of the discovery process of trial preparations.
"What we'll be doing there is really trying to flesh out what happened that day and Madison's ongoing needs and figuring out what the value of this file is," says Bezaire.
She says that process could take several more years.
