Articles Posted in Car Accident

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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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One of the most common questions we get from clients here at our law firm is “what does it take to have a sucessful accident case“? Essentially, people want to know what they can do in order to maximize their recovery and reduce their waiting time. It doesn’t matter if the client is from Toronto, London, or Peterborough; the question is always the same.

For starters, there is no short or easy answer to this question, and similar fact questions. Every person is different, every injury is different, every accident is different, which makes every case different.

There is also no such thing as “winning” a case. If you’re really hurt, then no amount of money will ever compensate you for your lost health. WIll a million dollars help you walk again if you’ve been rendered a parapeligic following serious car wreck on Highway 401 outside of Woodstock? Think about it.

What we tell people is that they ought to focus on their wellness and rehabilitation. The rest will take care of itself. The more which people focus on their legal case, the more anxious, worried and frustrated they will get. There are countless legal hurdles which need to be overcome by a skillful lawyer which all take time. Add to that the limited resouces in Ontario’s Courts and at FSCO which contribute to a long delay, you might be waiting a long time until your case sees the inside of the Courtroom, let alone settle.
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We get lots of calls at our law firm from accident victims across Ontario all with the same simple inquiry:

“I’ve been hurt in a car accident. I applied for accident benefits through my car insurance company. And now the car insurance company isn’t paying any accident benefits! Why is that and what can you do to help me?”

Our lawyers do our very best to help every person who calls our office with such an inquiry. We understand that people become very dependent on the benefits which an insurance company provides for them following a serious car crash. An insurer may pay you up to $400/week for an Income Replacement Benefit. They may pay you up to $1,500/month in an Attendant Care Benefit. They may also be paying for your massage, physiotherapy, pain management clinic, psychological counseling, or some other form of treatment which is not covered by OHIP. On the other hand, an insurance company may refuse to pay you anything.

There are plenty of reasons why your accident benefits might not be getting paid. Maybe you’ve changed your address and you haven’t replied to any letters which the insurance adjuster has been sending you? Maybe the insurance company hired a private investigator to take photos/video of you and caught you doing the death walk along the top of Toronto’s CN Tower. Maybe you haven’t even completed the requisite paperwork to get your case started in the first place.
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Imagine that you or a loved one sustained a left leg crush injury requiring amputation, 6 broken ribs, an orbital bone fracture, a tib/fib fracture, a pelvic fracture, internal bleeding along with a traumatic brain injury involving a subdural hematoma. Not pretty. It’s likely that your injuries would be categorized as “catastrophic” under the Insurance Act.

Often, following these catastrophic injuries, the client has a difficult time getting back to their pre-accident state of mind or physical self. The client might have a difficult time managing their activities of daily living, work duties, self-care duties, housekeeping and home maintenance, along with a whole other slew of activities of daily living which are difficult to predict.

The focus of this Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog Post will be on mental capacity, and not physical capacity. The reason for that is in Ontario, mental capacity is very important for any personal injury case.
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The biggest snow storm of the year has hit Toronto and other parts of Ontario. Parts of Highway 401 have been closed off on account of car accidents, poor visibility and poor driving conditions. The police, tow truck drivers and CAA are backlogged with reports of accidents and vehicles in distress. It’s days like these where people ask this personal injury lawyer “how can I avoid getting in to a car accident when the conditions are so bad“?

Well, on this snowy Toronto day, I’m going to share with you Brian Goldfinger’s top 6 tips on how to avoid/evade a car accident in a bad snow storm. If these tips aren’t sufficient, then check out the Goldfinger Guide to Fair Compensation, a copy of which is available at our website here, or you can request a hard copy from our office by clicking a link here.
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If you’ve been hurt or injured in a car accident, wouldn’t it be nice to recover $5,000,000 or $10,000,000 or even $50,000,000 for your injuries? The answer to that is a resounding “YES” from accident victims and injury lawyers alike. This would be amazing!

Unfortunately, the laws for damages in Canada, and in Ontario don’t make it very easy for you to recover damages in the tens of millions of dollars.

But Brian, how can you put a limit on my pain and suffering after a car accident? I’m really hurt, and my life has been a nightmare.

The Supreme Court of Canada, in a trilogy of 3 cases has but a cap on the limits for pain and suffering at around $310,000-$322,000 (depending on inflation rates). So, the most money a Court could award you following your car accident case for your pain and suffering is limited to around $322,000. This max only goes to the most seriously injured of persons who are taking the most serious of pain medications, anti inflammatory medication and who are receiving the very best in treatment.
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In a car accident involving pedestrian vs. car; car usually wins. If your name isn’t Superman, then it’s safe to say that the car will knock down and injure the pedestrian time and time again.

The question in pedestrian vs. car accidents isn’t always a question of damages; meaning I got hit by a car now pay me. The question can be hotly contested on the issue liability. That means who’s at fault for the accident. Who is to blame. Is the car driver 100% at fault? Was the pedestrian responsible for the accident, and if so, what percentage of liability ought to rest on his or her shoulders? At law, this apportionment of liability (like dividing up a piece of pie) is also expressed as contributory negligence.

Some of the worst car accident cases which my law firm has ever seen have involved cars hitting pedestrians while they’re trying to cross the road. One of the hardest parts of my job is having to explain the theory of contributory negligence to a client. The more injured the client, the more difficult the explanation becomes (not that every explanation isn’t difficult to begin with).
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If you hit a moose, a deer, or any other sort of animal and you get injured in the car accident, you can’t sue the animal. You can try. But I have a feeling that the animal doesn’t have car insurance, doesn’t have a bank account, and doesn’t have any sort of income; so your case will be bust.

If, per chance, that animal is owned by a wealthy owner (like Bill Gates or Donald Trump), OR any insured owner by that matter; then there’s a chance we can sue the owner for letting their animal get out of control and causing the car accident. I suppose that fact scenario would work in a situation where you hit a stray horse which happened to wander out of its pen and into the middle of a long country road causing you to hit it. In that scenario, we have to ensure that the home owner’s policy, or commercial general liability policy (CGL) covers them for this sort of loss.

BUT, most of the calls we get at Goldfinger Injury Lawyers involve people hitting a moose, or a deer along a quiet country road. You know those signs you see in remote areas which show a symbol of a deer prancing, which are supposed to be deer crossings; or beware of deer because they exist around these parts and they’re a driving hazard. You know that expression “deer in the headlights“. Welll, for city folk like those residing in the CIty of Toronto, deer hazards are likely very uncommon.
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One of the most important, and most difficult parts of any personal injury case is the Examination for Discovery. In the United States, Examinations for Discovery are called Depositions. The two are basically the same thing.

A Discovery is a chance for the lawyer acting for the insurance company to ask the Plaintiff/Accident Victim all sorts of questions about the car accident, their lives before and after the accident, along with their injuries. All answers are recorded by a court reporter. All answers are given under oath, meaning that you have to swear or affirm your answers to be the truth, the whole truth so help you G-d.

The discovery is likely the first time that the lawyer for the insurance company gets to meet the Plaintiff face to face, and hear them speak candidly about their accident.
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Last week the Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog was in the midst of providing you with valuable tips to complete the OCF-1 Application for Accident Benefits. Now, we’re going to complete this topic on how to properly complete the OCF-1 following a car accident. The fact that it will take 2 (or 3) blog posts to properly complete this topic without rendering you the reader into a coma (likewise to yours truly the writer), should be an indication to you how technical and tedious these forms are to complete.

For your refernce, the OCF-1 Application for Accident Benefits Form can be found on the website of the Financial Services Commission of Ontario here; or at the Goldfinger Injury Lawyers Website in the Accident Benefits section here.
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