Chelsey Bailey

First Year of Call
Alberta, 2000

Areas of Practice
Health Law

Description
Chelsey Bailey, KC is a civil litigator with over 20 years of experience representing Alberta-based clients. Chelsey’s practice is focussed on health law, in the context of both medical malpractice/negligence defence and professional regulation.
In her civil defense practice, Chelsey represents health authorities, hospitals, long-term care facilities, emergency health services and their individual staff members, in complex medical negligence actions, including birth and brain injury cases and at inquiries constituted under the provincial Fatality Inquiries Act. In this role she has defended nurses, physicians, pharmacists, paramedics, speech-language pathologists, occupational and respiratory therapists and other health professionals. Chelsey was one of the team of health law lawyers at Field Law representing the health authority at the 2012/2013 Provincial Public Inquiry into Preferential Access to Health Services.

Professional Colleges, including several health-related professional regulatory bodies, seek Chelsey’s help with a broad range of matters, such as disciplinary proceedings, investigations, and registration reviews and appeals. She provides advice on scope of practice opinions, licensing, continuing competence, substantial equivalency assessments and bylaw and policy development.

Chelsey appears before all levels of Court in Alberta and various administrative tribunals, including the Health Disciplines Board, the Public Health Appeals Board and the Law Enforcement Review Board. She has represented clients in judicial dispute resolutions, mediations and in investigations by the Office of the Alberta Ombudsman. She has presented on a myriad of professional negligence topics and on many issues relevant to professional regulation.

In 2016, Chelsey was selected by her peers in the field of Medical Negligence and is listed as a leading lawyer in Lexpert. She is recognised in Best Lawyers™ (Canada) in the field of Medical Negligence including Best Lawyers™ Medical Negligence “Lawyer of the Year” in Edmonton for 2025.

Value to Clients
Chelsey is known for her pragmatism, strong technical knowledge of her subject area and her ability to deal with experts in converting the technical to the legal. She empathizes with the professionals she defends in malpractice claims and both the regulators and those she prosecutes in professional disciplinary proceedings. Chelsey makes every effort to ensure her clients feel fully prepared and supported as they move through the legal process, understanding that it is foreign to most, and can be very intimidating to the uninitiated.

Outside the Office
Chelsey, her husband, their daughter and their dog Burt enjoy spending as much time as possible at their favourite destination – Lake Wabamun.