Articles Posted in Car Accident

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Let me preface this Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog Post by stating that I have nothing against insurance adjusters. Really. I don’t. It’s a job. The work is steady. The hours are probably ok. The so called “work-life” balance is there. Pay is good. Benefits gotta be good if you’re working for an insurer.

We get calls at our office from people who have recently been involved in all sorts of accidents. Car crashes, motorcycle accidents, dog bites, slip and falls. You name it. Our law firm hears about it.

People call us in a panic. Sometimes it’s because their lives have been traumatized on account of the accident. Sometimes it’s because they’re in shock. But most times it’s because they fell overwhelmed at what their next step is. The most common question we get is “WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO NEXT!?!?!?!“.
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Want to know what an accident benefit adjuster’s gotta do to properly handle your case car accident case? Check out the below Arbitration Appeal review of Delegate Lawrence Blackman of the Financial Services Commission on Ontario in Christopher Hoang v. The Personal Insurance Company of Canada.

Facts:

The Insured, Christropher Hoang was born on March 7, 1998. When he was just 6 years old, he was hit by a car. His right ankle was pinned under a wheel, and he lost consciousness. His Glascow Coma Scale reading was 3 out of 15; which is the lowest GCS score you can get while living. Think of being totally out of it on the ground, without responding to noise, movement, touch or any other sense. That was Mr. Hoang. He had to be resuscitated at the scene of the accident. He’s lucky to be alive.

Chris’ accident benefits were provided to him by The Personal Insurance Company. You, or a loved one might be insured by The Personal. Many clients at Goldfinger Law are insured by them. They’re a rather large insurer. You should know that The Personal is a subsidiary of Desjardins Insurance.
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How long do I have to sue for my personal injury case? How long can I wait? Can I afford to wait much longer? When should I retain a lawyer? When does time start to run after my accident? What happens if I’m under 18 and I’ve been involved in a car accident? What happens if I wait too long to sue?

These are all common questions which we receive at our law firm. It doesn’t matter if the caller is from Toronto, London, Peterborough or elsewhere in Ontario; all of these questions are valid and fair. Most people don’t understand much from the world of personal injury law and insurance law; let alone the complicated laws which have to deal with limtation periods.

In this Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog post, I will do my very best to de-mystify some of the most common misconceptions when it comes to limitation periods and deadlines for accident claims in Ontario. After reading this post, if you still have some more questions about limitation periods, then call our office toll free at 1-877-730-1777 or shoot us an email to info@goldfingerlaw.com and we will do our very best to help you.
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The calls keep rolling in to our law firm. I’m proud to say that I’m the lawyer who prospective clients will speak to. And, I can say based on all of my years of in-taking such calls that every body thinks they have an AMAZING case that’s worth like a million…no way…5 million…no way….100 million dollars.

Don’t get me wrong, multimillion dollar personal injury cases in Ontario do exist, but they are not the norm.

To put it into perspective, your standard Ontario car insurance policy has limits of $1,000,000. That means that if a drunk driver hits and injures you, there’s nothing stopping your lawyer from suing that drunk driver for $10,000,0000. But, if policy limits are just $1,000,000, your hopes of recovering that additional $9,000,000 are few and far between. Ever hear of trying to get blood from a stone? Same idea applies here.
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Every year around this time, Ontarians gather around the radio (old school) or TV and tune in the CTV, CBC, Global or CP24 to listen to the Premier or Minister of Finance go through the details of the provincial budget.

The government in power will make grandiose promises like cutting spending, while at the same time providing more in services. Other promises like slashing taxes, but at the same time collecting MORE tax dollars and making better use of those tax dollars. How about paying less in compensation but demanding more work of civil servants. Or attracting better talent but offering less in salary and benefits compared to other sectors. All of these promises is just a bunch of sucking and blowing. Ever trying sucking and blowing at the same time? Go ahead. Give it a try. Still haven’t found a person able to do it. If you’re that lucky person, please let me know.

At the end of the day, the Toronto Injury Law Blog always comes back to car accidents and personal injury claims. The budget usually has an impact on how personal injury cases run.
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On January 3, 2003 Leslie Brown was driving her car on RR#9 southwest of Napanee, Ontario. The road way icey. She lost control of her vehicle while travelleing down a hill, and then hit a loaded propane truck.

Ms. Brown sustained a traumatic brain injury. She has no recollection of the car accident on account of post traumatic amnesia. Her doctors have told her that she will never be able to return to her job again. She will require 24/7 attendant care for the rest of her life. Never mind caring for her children, she will need somebody to care for herself for the rest of her life.

Ms. Brown sued Lennox County and the Town of Napanee for failing to properly maintain their roads. She alleged that had the roadways been properly salted and sanded, that the car accident never would have happened. This is what we injury lawyers refer to as a Muncipial Liability case. These cases are always tricky as the standard to prove negligence against a Munipaility is much greater than then standard of proving negligence against a regular individual.
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Lots of injury and insurance lawyers across Ontario have been looking for some guidance with respect to what sort of cases rightly, or wrongly fall in to the Minor Inury Guideline or MIG as it’s known in the industry.

If you’ve never heard of the MIG, that’s ok. You’re not alone. Probably 99% of Ontarians have never heard of it, despite of the fact that it now applies to 100% of insured motorists in the province.

After a car accident, people are entitled to no fault benefits from their car insurer. These no fault or accident benefits are intented to help the accident victim get better following the collision. They pay for such things as physiotherapy, massage, chriopractic care, occupational therapy, speech language therapy, or just a gym membership.

The MIG was introduced by Ontario’s Provincial Government and took place effective September 1, 2010. Insurers and their lobbysists pushed for its introduction. Essentially, it allowed insurance companies to cut your medical and rehabilitative benefits from $50,000 down to $3,500. The justification for this was that insurers were paying too much to litigate matters, too much on rehab following car crashes, and spending too much money on fraud. Here is a copy of the MIG
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Spring is here. Well. Kinda. The snow has melted in some parts of Ontario at least. I was in Thunder Bay 2 weeks ago and the snow hasn’t yet melted there, but it’s starting to. The snow around the Peterborough office is slowly melting. And I can say without a great big smile on my face that the snow around the London and Toronto offices is now completely gone.

Toronto Injury Law Blog readers seem to love my lists, so without further ado, here are Brian Goldfinger’s top 5 safety tips for the springtime. Keep in mind that these tips won’t keep you or your loved ones 100% safe, but they will certainly reduce the risk of serious injury related to accident. I’ve developed these tips after years of seeing how accidents happen, and after years of seeing the mistakes which people begin to make after a long hard winter season.
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Clients are constantly asking me for the best way to get the insurance company to pay for treatment following an accident.

There are no quick and dirty legal answers to this question, but there are certainly a few routes which need to be explored. While we have a great OHIP system here in Ontario, some forms of treatment simply aren’t covered by OHIP, or they take far too long to get via the public system.

The first question one must ask is whether or not you have private medical benefits offered through your employer, or a private insurance plan. Some people have work coverage for up to $500 in massage, physio, chiro treatment etc offered through their workplace. This would be your first source of recovery for treament funding, regardless of whether or not you’re entitled to accident benefits or not. Under the Insurance Act, the law requires that your first exhaust your private or “collateral benefits”, before you can even touch your accident benefits via Ontario’s complicated No Fault Accident Benefit Regime.
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What does it take to be an expert injury lawyer? Many lawyers claim to be experts, but very few are. Many lawyers claim to have the experience, know how, savoir fair and the resources to maximize the recovery for your case, but how can you trust these claims?

The reason for this topic in my Toronto Injury Law Blog Post this week, is because I was recently retained by 6 new clients whose files were all in the hands of self professed “expert lawyers“, and they were completely unsatisfied by the level of service and results attained to that point in the case. Upon reviewing the file, it was clear to me that limitation periods had been missed, benefits which should have been claimed were ignored, and clients were not getting the medical benefits or medical treatment they so desperately needed. It was clear to me, and to the lawyers at my law firm that these “self-claimed experts” did not know what they were doing. It was as if it was the first time they had handled a personal injury case in Ontario. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I felt shock, anger, and sympathy for my clients all at the same time. You try that. It’s a whirlwind of emotion.
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