Peter Pliszka, a senior partner in Fasken’s Litigation Group, is regarded as one of Canada’s leading litigation lawyers. Peter’s practice is focused primarily on product liability, class action, commercial and insurance litigation matters, and it is national in scope. Peter conducts litigation proceedings across Canada and has appeared at all levels of court in Ontario and other Canadian provinces as well as the Supreme Court of Canada.
Peter is Fasken’s Chair-Life Sciences Litigation and National Chair of the firm’s Product Liability and Insurance Practice Group, which has been named Canada’s Product Liability Firm of the Year by Benchmark Canada in eight of the past twelve years—2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023, and 2024—and the LMG Life Sciences Canadian Product Liability Firm of the Year in 2015, 2016, 2019 and 2020. Peter is widely regarded as one of Canada's foremost litigators. Among other honours, Peter has been named Healthcare & Life Sciences Product Liability Lawyer of the Year by Lexology Index Awards in 2025; Life Sciences Product Liability Lawyer of the Year by LMG Life Sciences in 2016, 2021, 2023, and 2024; Best Lawyers in Canada (2021) named Peter Lawyer of the Year (Product Liability); and Who’s Who Legal has frequently included Peter in its annual exclusive list of “Global Elite Thought Leaders” for Product Liability Defence and Life Sciences Product Liability.
Peter has substantial experience as defence counsel for manufacturing companies in private action and class action product liability and consumer rights proceedings. He has served as lead national defence counsel for clients in multi-jurisdictional and national product liability class actions in Canada involving motor vehicles, drugs, medical devices, food and sports equipment.
Peter also has extensive experience advising on Canadian defence of cross-border legal proceedings involving parallel claims on both sides of the Canada-US border. In this capacity, Peter closely collaborates with clients’ outside counsel in the US, developing and executing defence plans in a strategic and cost-efficient manner.
Peter has been lead counsel in several major precedent-setting court decisions that have improved the legal landscape in Canada for defendants in product liability class actions. Examples include:
- Maginnis et al v. FCA Canada Inc. et al, 2021 ONSC 3897 (Div. Ct.) which established the principle that a plaintiff must present some evidence of compensable loss suffered by the proposed class as a prerequisite to potential certification of a class action;
- Palmer v. Teva Canada Ltd. et al, 2024 ONCA 220, which confirmed the principle that there can be no viable claim in the tort of negligence without evidence of actual damage -- an allegation of an increased risk of potential future damage is not actionable -- and substantially restricted the potential for a plaintiff to recover damages for the cost of medical monitoring; and
- North v. Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, 2025 ONCA 340, which held that where an allegedly defective component of a product fails and causes damage to that larger product of which it is an integral part, the cost of repairing or replacing the larger product is “pure economic loss” which is not recoverable in a claim under the tort of negligence.
In addition to representing clients in lawsuits and other litigious proceedings (such as Coroners’ Inquests), Peter advises manufacturers, distributors, importers and retailers on the regulatory requirements of various products, risk management issues and corrective actions including product warnings and recalls.
Peter’s client base and his reputation are international in scope. He is regularly retained by clients from the US, Europe, and Asia in legal matters in Canada, and he has substantial experience in the area of private international law. In this context, Peter has been counsel in several leading cases respecting the law of jurisdiction in Canada. In particular, Peter was counsel for the foreign defendant in the precedent-setting Supreme Court of Canada case of Van Breda, which established a new (and improved, from the perspective of corporate defendants) test for determining when a Canadian court is entitled to take jurisdiction over a foreign defendant sued in a Canadian court.
Peter’s reputation as a top litigation lawyer has been recognized by numerous national and international legal directories, including Chambers Canada, Who’s Who Legal, Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory, Lexpert/American Lawyer, Benchmark Canada, Best Lawyers and Legal Media Group’s Guides to the World’s Leading Lawyers and “Best of the Best” guide to the top 30 product liability lawyers in the world.
Chambers ranks Peter as one of Canada's leading litigation lawyers in Class Actions and Product Liability; for the past several years. Peter has been ranked as one of only four or five lawyers in Band 1 for product liability litigation in Canada. Chambers has reported the following comments about Peter, based on its extensive survey of clients and peers:
“Peter Pliszka is highlighted as ‘exceptionally talented, very personable and practical.’ He regularly handles single plaintiff and class action cases, and has notably been involved in Canada’s high profile and ongoing opioid disputes.”
“Peter Pliszka enjoys a standout reputation as one of the “top people in the country” for product liability cases. His broad practice covers the full spectrum of proceedings in this area involving medical devices, automobiles, food and consumer products.”
“He is esteemed for his product liability work which covers pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and automobiles. Clients praise him for being ‘very customer-focused, very receptive and willing to work and very professional.”
"Peter Pliszka is recognized as a top-class advocate in product liability claims, with expertise spanning pharmaceuticals, medical devices, food and automobiles."
Similarly, the Lexpert Canadian Legal Directory lists Peter as one of Canada's leading litigation lawyers in class actions and a “most frequently recommended” lawyer in product liability law, while Lexpert/American Lawyer Magazine lists Peter in its Guide to the Leading 500 lawyers in Canada.
Moreover, based on its surveys of in-house counsel and peers in the litigation bar, the International Bar Association’s lawyer ranking publication, Who’s Who Legal (WWL), has ranked Peter as one of the world's leading lawyers in product liability and life sciences litigation. Beyond that, in 2021 WWL included Peter as one of only 12 product liability lawyers from North America in its list of “Global Elite Thought Leaders".
WWL has reported the following comments about Peter in recent years:
"At Fasken, Peter Pliszka is revered for his top-notch work defending manufacturers from high-stakes and multi-jurisdictional class actions." One peer adds: "He is very cordial and easy to work with."
"Peter Pliszka is 'absolutely first class'." In the words of one of our interviewees, “the clients love him.”
"Peter Pliszka at Fasken is 'extraordinarily good', according to sources, who describe him as being 'very well regarded and an all-round great lawyer'."
Peter is the co-author of a leading book for practitioners in coroners' investigations and inquests in Ontario, as well as chapters about Canadian product liability and class actions law for international compilation text books. Beyond that, Peter has published numerous articles and is regularly asked to speak at legal conferences throughout Canada and the US.
