Articles Posted in Car Accident

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Toronto has seen a spike in pedestrian/car and bike/car accidents. Toronto has also seen a spike in fatality claims arising from such accidents. Vision Zero is a multi-national road traffic safety project that aims to achieve a highway system with no fatalities or serious injuries involving road traffic. Vision Zero has been implemented in Toronto, but its objectives have not been met. The goals are ambitious, and failure to reach those goals is a “good try“. Harsher critics would call it a failure.

Fatality claims on Toronto Roads have hit such a crisis point that City Council voted unanimously to double this year’s road safety budget in light of recent cyclist and pedestrian deaths and public outcry. An additional $22 million in annual municipal spending will go towards accomplishing Vision Zero goals in the City of Toronto. This more than doubles the initial budget of Vision Zero, which had been set at around 21.3 million.

We can all agree that nobody should be seriously injured, or killed while using our streets either as a motorist, cyclist, or pedestrian. Our streets should be safe; and the fear of getting run over by a car shouldn’t run rampant in your mind when out and about trying to enjoy city life in Toronto.

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My name is Brian Goldfinger. I’m a personal injury lawyer.

My law firm, Goldfinger Injury Lawyers, represents injured accident victims, disability claimants and their loved ones across Ontario.

We have meeting offices in Toronto, London, Peterborough, Kitchener-Waterloo, and soon to be Owen Sound too! More on our expansion to Owen Sound in days to come.

Recently, I attended at a private mediation on very serious car accident case in London, ON. In dispute was everything under the sun including but not limited to:

  • Liability (whose fault was the car accident)
  • Damages (how bad are the Plaintiff’s damages)
  • Causation (are the Plaintiff’s damages directly attributable to the subject car accident)
  • Income loss & loss of competitive advantage in the workplace
  • Past and Future Care Costs
  • Attendant Care Costs
  • Housekeeping & Home maintenance costs
  • Are the Plaintiff’s injuries catastrophic?
  • What is the value of the Family Law Act Claims?
  • Will the injuries meet the threshold?
  • If so, will those injuries surpass the $37,983.33 deductible for pain and suffering claims general damages under $126,610.07​
  • Payment of Non-Earner Benefits
  • Payment of Attendant Care Benefits
  • Which disbursements are assessible, and which aren’t?
  • How much interest is owing and at which interest rate?
  • What is the applicable discount rate for payments made in to the future?
  • What are the appropriate set offs which the tort insurer and accident benefit insurer are entitled to; if any?

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Earlier this week I was at lunch with a good friend of mine. He was involved in a car accident a few weeks ago. I (Brian Goldfinger) was the ideal person to lunch with because we could talk about my primary area of practice, personal injury law.

While my friend was driving around his subdivision, another driver ran a stop sign and t-boned his vehicle travelling at high speeds.

My friend’s vehicle was virtual write off; although the insurer is doing everything in their power to salvage the vehicle. It’s cheaper for them to pay for the labour and parts than it is to purchase a new vehicle.

My friend’s air bags deployed. He was knocked unconscious for a period of time. How long is uncertain.

My friend told me how hard the other guy’s insurance company was fighting with him. This seemed odd because the car accident only happened a few weeks ago, and here in Ontario, we have a no fault accident benefit system which is supposed to take away that fighting between the innocent accident victim and the other driver’s insurance company at such an early stage. If there is to be any fighting or disagreement, this would take place at a much later stage.

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It’s never ok for Google to be your lawyer. Nor is it ok for Google to be your doctor, dentist, accountant, amateur arborist or veterinarian. You get the picture.

But Google and the internet are a wealth of information. That information can be very helpful at times. At other times, it can be very dangerous. So dangerous in fact just doing a simply Google search as a juror can be cause for a mistrial in an Ontario car accident case.

How could this possibly happen? How could something as innocent as a Google search impact a personal injury case?

Enter the recent Ontario Superior Court case of Patterson et. al. v. Peladeau 2018 ONSC 2625

After 8 weeks of evidence, closing arguments and a jury charge, the jury deliberated for five days before returning with a verdict.

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Mistakes happen. Part of our job at Goldfinger Injury Lawyers is helping people better understand the law, and how car accident insurance works in Ontario.

Today the Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog is pleased to share Brian Goldfinger’s list of Top 6 Mistakes which people make after a serious car accident in Ontario.

If you or a loved one has been involved in a serious car collision, Brian Goldfinger and the team at Goldfinger Injury Lawyers urge you to read this list carefully to make sure that the same mistakes don’t happen do you or your loved ones. Your health is important and so is your case. Don’t get hurt twice.

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This installment of the Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog Post will deal with Brian Goldfinger’s tips on driving in Winter Wonderland.

Now that winter is here (officially), it’s important to get a refresher on how to stay safe when road conditions get hazardous on account of bad weather.

Brian Goldfinger has represented his fair share of personal injury clients who have been involved in serious motor vehicle collisions where winter weather has played a role.

“Most car accidents are avoidable” says personal injury lawyer Brian Goldfinger. “Speed and road conditions generally play a role; but so does bad judgment, and having the right equipment on your vehicle”.

Mr. Goldfinger will help the Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog readership in further understanding how to stay safe while driving in winter conditions.

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On December 5, 2017, Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa along with Attorney General Yasir Naqvi announced another set of major reforms to car insurance in Ontario. This set of reforms has a grandiose name, much like all of the other reforms which have been introduced in the 14+ years of Wynne rule in Ontario.

The “Fair Auto Insurance Plan” is intended to lower premiums in Ontario, and reduce fraud. Both sound like great things. Haven’t we been trying to reduce premiums over the past 30+ years? In that time period, have your premiums gone down? Have the premiums of your neighbours, friends, family members or loved ones even gone down in the past 5 years? Likely not according to our very informal survey of asking real people if their premiums have gone down.

The Fair Auto Insurance Plan is based on the recommendations from the Marshall Report, created by former head of the WSIB David Marshall. The Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog covered the Marshall Report entitled Fair Accident Benefits, Fairly Delivered in a previous entry here. If you haven’t read up on the Marshall Report, I suggest that you do if you want to better understand what the Liberal Government is hoping to accomplish.

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An Ontario MPP’s private member’s bill proposed that pedestrians not paying attention to where or how they are walking, could be fined up to $50 for distracted walking.

It’s called the “Phones Down, Heads Up Act” and was tabled by Toronto MPP Yves Baker of Etobicoke Centre.

Baker’s bill would ban people from looking at their phones or electronic devices when crossing roads, with an initial $50 fine for the first offence, $75 for the second and up to $125 for the third. Exceptions would include pedestrians making an emergency call or if they began speaking on the phone before stepping into the crosswalk (this would be difficult to prove).

In Ontario, the OPP attributed 65 deaths in 2016 to distracted driving, which is more than impaired driving, speeding or not wearing a seat belt. While this is not distracted walking, it’s certainly along the same lines. In 2016, 42 pedestrians were killed on Toronto’s streets, the most since 2002.

Here are Goldfinger Injury Lawyers, we applaud the “Phones Down, Heads Up Act” as too often, we see people taking those so called “zombie walks” without paying attention to where they are going, or what they’re doing.

But, we have a lot of questions about the new Act, which are explored in greater detail below.

Please keep in mind that distracted walking does not only involve accidents involving pedestrians, and cars, bikes or other motorized vehicles.

People walk in to pot holes or cracks or lose their footing on account of not paying attention to where they are walking .

People walk in to lamp posts, doors, walls, guard rails, other pedestrians, parked cars and fall down stairs because they are not paying attention to where they are walking.

People slip on ice or other slick surfaces because they aren’t paying attention to where they’re walking.

You have all seen the YouTube clips before of ridiculous distracted walking incidents. Our personal injury lawyers field some of those calls.

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Your personal injury lawyer may have shared the term “Examination for Discovery” with you when describing the next step in your case.

This may be the first time you’ve heard this legal term.

Understanding what it means to participate in an Examination for Discovery, and why a discovery is important for your personal injury case, will help you better understand and make you feel more comfortable with your case. An understanding and more comfortable client will perform better when it matters most.

After reading this Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog Post you may likely still be nervous for an upcoming Examination for Discovery.

Rest assured; these feelings are NORMAL! It’s perfectly normal to get nervous or anxious to participate in a discovery if you’ve never done one before. Even if you have participated in one, you never know what to expect.

Unless you’re a lawyer who has done hundreds or thousands of Examinations for Discovery, you will likely have a hard time sleeping the eve of discovery on account of nerves. Use those nerves to your advantage to keep you sharp and alert throughout the discovery process instead of having those nerves work against you.

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Car accident cases in Ontario should be simple.

The premise of one car, hitting another car by mistake or negligence; and thereby causing damages/injuries to another party ought to be basic tort law.

Unfortunately in Ontario, this couldn’t be further from the truth. The Ontario Government, at the behest of large insurers has created a system whereby the rights of people are not equal to the rights of large insurance companies. This system has become very complicated.

The law has been crafted in such a way as to minimize the exposure/risk for insurers to boost their profits, at the expense of everyday people like you and me.

I have never met an individual unaffiliated with car insurance industry (doctor, therapist, adjuster, lobbyist, lawyer, insurance company employee/agent) who has lobbied for changes to accident benefits or the Insurance Act. Yet, major changes to accident benefits and the Insurance Act happen on a near annual basis.

The election issue of lowering car insurance premiums was admitted by Premier Wynne to be a “stretch goal“. But reforms to the accident benefit system, and how tort claims proceed through the Courts was not a election issue. Yet these items are constantly being tinkered with at the expense of innocent accident victims to bolster insurer profits.

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