Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog
Every single client that personal injury lawyer Brian Goldfinger has met believes that his/her case is worth at the very least, $1,000,000 (if not more).
But why stop at $1,000,000?
Why not $2,000,000?
Or $3,000,000?
How about $10,000,000?
Better yet, let’s make it $50,000,000 plus three Ferraris, a life time supply of groceries and a lakefront Muskoka cottage.
There are no limits to our imaginations and expectations for our respective cases.
But unfortunately, there are limitations at law for how much you can receive in your personal injury case, along with what exactly you can claim for.
When clients here about these limitations (essentially how the law works in Ontario), they are left disappointed and thinking that “the law sucks“. I agree. The law does suck. And it sucks especially hard for innocent car accident victims who did NOTHING WRONG, except for being in the wrong place, at the wrong time and suffering a serious injury as a result of the negligence of another individual.
When reading this installment of the Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog, please keep this in mind. All the law can do is try to make you whole, to compensate you “fairly” for your injuries. The law only in very rare cases punishes defendants with punitive or aggravated damages. Defendants are entitled to more protections under the law than innocent plaintiffs. We see these protections in the form of caps on general damages, secret credits called “deductibles“, medico-legal thresholds to hit in order to recover compensation along with damage set offs or credits for at fault defendants.
Car accident laws in Ontario have been drafted, crafted, carefully thought out and manipulated by large deep pocketed insurance companies to reduce their risk and exposure in cases like yours. The lower their risk and exposure, the more profitable these insurance companies can be.
The Ontario government for many years has caved in to insurance company demands with respect to the laws, in particular for car accident claims. The thinking was that the more insurers saved, the easier they would be able to pass along these savings to the consumer to reduce car insurance rates to make everyone happy. But ask yourself, over the past decade have your car insurance rates decreased? Likely not. But the benefits you’re eligible to receive have been slashed significantly. The end result is that Ontario consumers are paying MORE for car insurance, but getting LESS coverage and benefits under their plans.
