Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog

Published on: February 19, 2025

February is Slip and Fall Season

First and foremost, our thoughts are with the 76 passengers and 4 crew members of Delta Air Lines flight 4819 from Minneapolis to Toronto which crash landed on February 17, 2025 at Pearson International Airport in Mississauga.

Thankfully, nobody died.

There were 18 injuries reported in the crash. We can only imagine that there will be more injuries long after the crash given the trauma of what took place. The thought of ever flying in an airplane again must be daunting for the victims, families, friends along with any others impacted by this accident.

We have never heard of an airplane flipping over and coming to a rest upside down; let alone seen footage of that actually taking place! This is another example of how cameras on phones are quite handy in personal injury cases. In the past, we would only hear that the plane landed upside down. We would have to imagine that happening in our heads, which, is quite difficult to picture. But with cameras on phones which capture the event happening itself, there is no longer any need for anyone to imagine that happening. The picture (video) speaks a thousand words and provides very powerful images of what took place. The same idea (of capturing a picture or a video) applies equally to all different sorts of personal injury cases. Those images don’t have to be as dramatic or jaw dropping as a plane crash landing upside down. It can be as simple as the aftermath of a car crash. Or the damage done to vehicles after a car accident. Or as boring as a patch of ice which had not been maintained by a property owner causing a slip and fall accident.

And on that note, this seems like a good segue to introduce the main topic of this week’s installment of the Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog. Slip and Falls accidents.

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Published on: February 10, 2025

Police Reports in Personal Injury Cases

By Goldfinger Injury Lawyers

You would think that after a car accident, the police arrive quickly on scene to take notes, interview the parties along with any witnesses and prepare an accident report.

When people are injured, the accident needs to be reported to police. But sometimes the injuries at the accident scene are not apparent. They might be tears to tissue which you don’t feel right away. They might be psychological injuries which may not manifest right away. Or, perhaps the accident victim is pumped up with adrenaline (which is very common), and they don’t feel any injury at the scene of the accident; only to return home and the next day feel like terrible pain. So, this notion that the motor vehicle accident needing to be reported to police in the event of injury can be tricky if the injuries are not obvious.

When there is combined damage of $2,000 or more to vehicles or to property, the car accident has to be reported. This is difficult, because the average person is not a certified appraiser. They won’t know the value of the vehicle or property damage because it’s just not something that the average person will know. This is why there are appraisers, because they appraise the value of damage for a living. The expectation that a person know whether or not the damage to the vehicle or to the property exceeds $2,000 is rather far fetched. Nobody is going on the underside of a car at an accident scene with a mechanical light to make sure that the undercarriage of the car is in order. The same can be said when it comes to the alignment of the vehicle. You cannot tell at the accident scene whether or not the vehicle will require a new alignment after an accident. You need a mechanic to check it out. To air on the side of caution, we would recommend that you report the accident rather than not report it.

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Published on: February 6, 2025

Slip and Fall Checklist

By Goldfinger Injury Lawyers

Slip and Fall season in Ontario continues. Most of the slip and fall cases we see have to deal with winter conditions, like snow, sleet, slush and ice. They are common occurrences in cold weather climates, especially when temperatures have been consistently below the freezing mark for extended periods of time.

So what do you do after a slip and fall?

This edition of the Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog will attempt to give you a checklist of things to do after a slip and fall. While no such list can be completely exhaustive because each case is different, we’ve attempted to narrow down the most important things to do when after a slip and fall case happens.

As with all personal injury cases, the first and most important thing to do is to get the medical attention and care you need. Your safety and health are top priority, and should not be sacrificed. This means getting medical care following your accident and not refusing treatment which has been offered. Why do we mention this? Too often we see people following accidents think that everything is “ok“, only to find out down the road that things are not “ok“. Insurers take advantage of this by suggesting that your injury was not directly as a result of your slip and fall. Rather, your injury is related to something completely different. They try to create the narrative that had your injury been very serious, legitimate, or directly caused by the slip and fall; that you would have sought out medical attention right away, or not refused treatment. Therefore, your injuries must be related to something else not tied to the subject accident. See how that works!

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Published on: January 31, 2025

Election Time in Ontario Means a Lot for your Personal Injury Claim

By Goldfinger Injury Lawyers

Doug Ford’s ruling Conservative Government announced a provincial election to take place on February 27, 2025. Mr. Ford called the election early, because that’s one of the tactical advantages which you have as the ruling party. You get to call the election when it best suits your timeline; and to catch the other parties off guard.

You might not think that Ontario Provincial Elections, or Provincial Politics have anything to do with personal injury cases. But they do! The Ontario Government has ALL of the power with respect to the rules and regulations which get applied to not only personal injury cases, but how the Courts and Tribunals function which have a significant impact on all aspects of a personal injury case.

Let’s take a look at a few examples at how provincial politics, and provincial governments have impacted personal injury cases:

April 1, 2016 The Elimination of the Financial Services Commission of Ontario and the Introduction of the License Appeals Tribunal

The Ontario Provincial Government completely eliminated FSCO, and replaced it with the LAT. In doing so, the completely eliminated all FSCO mediations and arbitrations, along with taking away an innocent accident victim’s right to sue his/her own insurer in Court. They effectively eliminated the rights of all Ontario driver’s and accident victims to sue over an accident benefit claim denial/dispute. They also transferred these cases from knowledgeable arbitrators to inexperienced and “new” adjudicators at the LAT who were not familiar with how car accident cases work. They also eliminated the ability to recover legal costs or disbursements against you own insurer in a proceeding, thereby increasing the power imbalance between an innocent accident victim and a sophisticated, deep pocketed insurance company. They say that in civil litigation, the party with the deepest pockets tends to win. The provincial government certainly aided insurers in making that fight even more imbalanced with the elimination of costs for these car accident cases.

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Published on: January 22, 2025

Helping your slip and fall case get off to the right start

By Goldfinger Injury Lawyers

Winter time slip and fall cases caused by snow, ice or other slippery cold weather conditions are common occurrences in Ontario. But, just because they are common doesn’t mean that we all know what to do after a slip and fall takes place.

It’s common knowledge that when you’re involved in a serious car accident to contact the police. The great thing about police investigations in personal injury cases is that you have a third party making findings at the accident scene itself, and they will record contemporaneous notes. In fact, the police can go one step further and conduct a forensic investigation and event reconstruct the accident as well. But, it’s not so common knowledge to know what to do after a slip and fall accident. The police department does not examine slip and fall cases. There are no police officer’s notes, or reconstruction reports generated by the police after a slip and fall accident.

So, what do you do after a slop and fall accident; particularly in the winter time? Good question! The more you know, the greater chance that evidence will be collected and preserved to better advance and present a personal injury case.

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Published on: January 16, 2025

No Fault Accident Benefit Claims in Ontario are Strange

By Goldfinger Injury Lawyers

Ontario has a no fault system of accident benefits if you’ve been involved in a car accident.

Understanding the concept of “no fault” is hard to grasp (even for lawyers!).

You would think that if you’re not at fault, then the at fault driver’s insurer should pay for everything.

But, that’s not how things work in Ontario’s no fault system. We have a first party pays system.

What this means is that regardless of fault, your own car insurer is responsible to pay for accident benefits in your car accident case.

This means that the other driver could have been drunk, high, on his/her cell phone, having run a red light; and still your own car insurer is the primary payor for accident benefits.

Even more strange is that if you had collateral benefits at the time of the accident, such as health, disability or anything else through work; those benefits kick in BEFORE the car insurance benefits kick in. Even though your collateral benefits have nothing to do with car insurance, those collateral benefits must be used up before the car insurer has to pay anything. How does that make sense? It’s like a disability insurer telling you that they will not pay any disability benefits until you’ve purchased 3 lottery tickets to see if you win. In the event you win, then they disability insurer does not pay because you’ve been paid lottery winnings. If you loose the lottery, and only once you’ve lost and submitted proof of losing that they will pay. All of these laws defy logic, but this is how Ontario’s archaic system of accident benefits has been designed.

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Published on: January 9, 2025

So many forms in personal injury cases!

By Goldfinger Injury Lawyers

As the title to this Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog Post will tell you, there are so many forms in personal injury cases. If you wanted the Coles Notes version of this entry, I suppose that you can stop reading here. But, if you’re more interested about the details behind these forms then please keep on reading!

At times, it’s difficult to understand why there are so many forms to complete after you’ve been hurt or injured in an accident. If you don’t want any medical assistance, benefits, or compensation, then you don’t have to complete any forms at all. But, that’s not most people. Most people aren’t seeking compensation for their injuries. They are seeking to be made whole from the financial losses which they’ve sustained; or they are seeking treatment for their injuries which are not covered under the public health care system. This is a common theme. If you’ve missed out on work and income, people want that income back. If you need physiotherapy treatment, you should not be out of pocket having to pay for that treatment. All people want, for the most part, is to be made whole following an injury or accident which puts them out of commission. This isn’t so much to ask….Or is it?

One of the themes in personal injury law, as in life, is that if you don’t ask for something, you will get nothing in return. In personal injury cases, money will not fall from the sky. Nor will your out of pocket treatment, or attendant care, be paid out of thin air because a Defendant, or their insurer is being nice. One must ask for these things to get paid.

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Published on: December 31, 2024

My One Wish for Personal Injury Law in 2025

By Goldfinger Injury Lawyers

2024 was a great year. But, that’s not to say that we here at Goldfinger Injury Lawyers wouldn’t like to see some changes to how things play out for litigating personal injury cases in Ontario.

New Years is a great time for top 10 or top 5 lists for changes we’d like to see. But, I know that such changes aren’t realistic because the wheels of change when it comes to the legal system turn very slowly, or simply don’t turn at all!

That’s why I’m going to focus this edition of the Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog on just one procedural change which I’d like to see in 2025. Just one change! That’s it! It’s not a big ask at all. It doesn’t impact the merits of the claim, nor does it impact how cases are heard/adjudicated thereby giving one party any sort of procedural advantage. The change is neutral, and is intended to save everyone, along with the Courts time and money. It has to do with the service of the Statement of Claim and motions for Substituted Service in Ontario.

New Rules for Substituted Service Motions

Courts don’t have the time, man power, or money to keep up. They are constantly understaffed and backlogged. They cannot keep their heads above water.

There are steps which the Rules require parties follow to push a case through the system. One of the most basic procedures is serving the Statement of Claim on the Defendant.

Often times, a Defendant’s address changes. Perhaps they have moved. Perhaps they are avoiding/evading service. Perhaps they have fled the province or the country.

What happens when a Plaintiff cannot serve the Statement of Claim on the Defendant because they’ve vanished? Does the case end right there? No, it doesn’t. There is a mechanism is the Rules of Civil Procedure which has contemplated such an occurrence; because it happens more than you would think.

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Published on: December 23, 2024

New Year? New Deductible for Car Accident Pain and Suffering Cases in Ontario

By Goldfinger Injury Lawyers

There are a lot of things which non personal injury lawyers don’t know about car accident cases in Ontario. Heck, even some lawyers who don’t practice in the area of car accident cases don’t even know. These are dirty little secrets which aren’t advertised with much fanfare. But, if you do a bit of research, you can learn pick up a few pearls of knowledge here and there.

Every year around this time, the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA) makes a very under the radar announcement, if you can really call it an announcement at all. Basically, they update a page on their website to post new deductible rates for the upcoming new year.

These deductible rates are important for car accident cases. The deductible rates have nothing to do with the physical damage to your vehicle. Nor, do you get to set the deductible by paying a higher insurance premium. This seems very odd, because under all car insurance policies, and under the vast majority of insurance policies, the consumer can pay more premiums to reduce a deductible and potentially reduce it to zero.

But not for pain and suffering claims in car accident cases. The deductible is pre-determined and uniform across the board. It cannot be eliminated, not matter how much you pay in car insurance premiums. The consumer is completely powerless, and at the will of the government along with the insurance industry.

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Published on: December 19, 2024

Holiday Party Dos and Don’ts

By Goldfinger Injury Lawyers

The Holiday Season is upon us. And with the Holidays comes a lot of celebration. Office holiday parties. Family holiday parties. Friend holiday parties. Sporting team holiday parties. You name it. People will get together and party.

And with parties comes responsibility. Whether or not you’re a host, or a guest, you have a job to do.

With this edition of the Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog, we will review some dos and don’ts for the holiday party season.

Don’t Overconsume

Will there be alcohol at your holiday party? Probably. Will there be cannabis? Perhaps. Will there be edible cannabis products? You never know. Either way; whatever it is that you consume, do it responsibly and don’t over do it. This is not only to keep you and others safe. It also applies to those office parties or other social gathering when you can end up saying (or doing) something that you will regret on account of having too much to smoke or drink. Just because something is legal (alcohol or cannabis) doesn’t mean that you or your guests are entitled to consume it until they can’t function. In some cases, the host can be held responsible for the over consumption of their guests. This concept is known as social host liability. While social host liability is not easy to prove, it exists and can be established in certain situations. In fact, the Supreme Court of Canada examined the concept of social host liability in a case called Childs v. Desmoreaux [2006] 1 S.C.R. 643, 2006. It’s an interesting read for all those interested in the concept of the responsibilities of a social host for a party involving alcohol, along with the concept of social host liability.

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