Damages

Published on: April 19, 2012

Personal Injury Mediation: Is there a method to the madness?

99% of personal injury cases in Toronto settle outside of the Courtroom. That means that of all of the personal injury actions started in Toronto, only 1% of them ever go to trial.

So, how do the other 99% of personal injury cases in Toronto get resolved? Some settle at the insurance adjuster level. Others settle between the plaintiff personal injury lawyer in Toronto and the lawyer for the insurance company. This can be done by way of without prejudice settlement proposal or by way of a simple phone call. Other cases might settle with the assistance of a Judge at a Pre-Trial. A Pre-Trial is a without prejudice settlement conference before a Judge, often in chambers so NOT in Courtroom. The Judge will attempt to narrow the issues before the trial, might try to resolve the case, and if the Judge is unable to do so, that Judge may provide his/her opinion about the personal injury case.

In Toronto, mediations are mandatory for all personal injury cases. That means that all car accident cases, slip and fall cases, long term disability cases, https://www.personalinjurylawyertoronto.com/lawyer-attorney-1852946.html, chronic pain cases, spinal cord injury cases, and any other personal injury action started in Toronto will have to be mediated before it can go to trial.
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Published on: March 21, 2012

Quick money now or structured settlement?

By Goldfinger Injury Lawyers

The amount of money at stake in catastrophic accident benefit claims can be very significant. Millions of dollars can be required for future attendant care benefits, future medical/rehabilitative benefits or otherwise.

An insurance company is under no obligation to lump out your accident benefit claim. If you die in 5 years, then why should an insurer be on the hook for payment of your future benefits today, when you’re not around to use them?

On the other hand, a closed file is a good file for an insurance company. Sometimes, it pays for them to simply pay off a significant portion of the claim to make you go away so they can close their file.

Because there are contingencies for millions of dollars in benefits flowing from the insurance company to the accident victim, the insurance company may insist in putting that money into what’s called a structured settlement.
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Published on: March 8, 2012

How insurance companies evaluate your personal injury law claim from a Toronto Personal Injury Lawyers Perspective

By Goldfinger Injury Lawyers

People ask me all the time: how do insurance companies put a price tag on my personal injury case? How can they arbitrarily put a price tag on my life; on my income loss; on my pain and suffering!!! I’m getting mad just thinking about this. Who do they think they are!?!?!?

Seems like such a subjective exercise; doesn’t it?

Remain calm my keener friends. There’s some method to the madness which makes up a personal injury law claim.

One thing you need to understand, is that personal injury damages aren’t lumped together into one big pot of stew like you may think. On the contrary, there are many different heads to personal injury law damages. Goldfinger Injury Lawyers knows all about these heads of damages. It’s what we do.
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Published on: December 19, 2011

Brian Goldfinger’s Top 5 Christmas Wishes for Personal Injury Law in Ontario

By Goldfinger Injury Lawyers

It’s the holiday season! Time to get together with family, friends and loved ones and celebrate what matters most.

This holiday season, you’ll notice a few changes to the Goldfinger Injury Lawyers website. Number 1: It’s got a new look, new content and a new layout. We want to keep things “fresh” for the new year so we can keep up with the latest in personal injury, traumatic brain injury and legal car accident news and developments in Ontario.

Number 2: We also have a new look and a new feel for our blog. Let us know what you think about it.

Diving in to our reader mailbag, I have a question from Brett in Toronto. Brett asks:

“Brian, Merry Christmas to you and the team at Goldfinger Injury Lawyers. What is it you want for Christmas this year?”
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Published on: March 24, 2011

But I was going to make a million $$$: Quantifying your loss of income claim in a personal injury case

By Goldfinger Injury Lawyers

Client after client after client tell me that their personal injury case is worth MILLIONS…No wait…BILLIONS of dollars. The reality is that some cases are worth millions, other cases… well….just aren’t.

The real money in personal injury cases is NOT for pain and suffering. Pain and suffering damages are CAPPED in Canada. You read that right. Pain and suffering damages are CAPPED in Canada. That cap sits at around $310,000-$325,000 or so; depending on inflation and who you ask.

The real money for personal injury cases is in future care costs and loss of income or loss of future earning capacity. This blog entry will examine what it takes to establish a past and future income loss claim.

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Published on: July 26, 2010

What if Superman were involved in a car accident? The Law of Damages in Personal Injury Cases

By Goldfinger Injury Lawyers

One of the most important things for an accident victim to understand when pursuing their personal injury case is how the laws of damages apply to their individual case. The laws of damages are very important, because at the end of the day, how damages work has a direct impact on how much compensation an accident victim will receive at the conclusion of their personal injury case.

One of the examples that we use to illustrate the importance of how the laws of damages impact personal injury cases, is providing the example of what if Superman were involved in a car accident?

One nice summer day Superman is crossing the street as a pedestrian on his way to the local library. Suddenly and without warning, a drunk truck driver runs a red light and crashes directly into Superman; while Superman is crossing on a green light in between a cross walk. The accident is clearly not Superman’s fault.

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Published on: January 3, 2009

Why do damage awards appear so much bigger in the United States than they are in Canada?

By Goldfinger Injury Lawyers

In the American news we see that accident victims get awarded ridiculously high awards for seemingly small accidents. Who can forget the story of the person who was awarded $1 million dollars because his coffee was too hot. Or how about the $20 million dollar awards for the elderly couple who scratched their arm after they fell off their bicycles?

Many of these stories, are just that, false stories. But, it cannot be denied that awards for accident victims in the United States are higher than awards in Ontario and Canada. The reason for this is because the highest court of Canada, which is called the Supreme Court ruled in a series of 3 cases that damages for pain and suffering be capped at around 3.25 million dollars. What that means is no matter how much pain and suffering you’ve been through after an accident, you damages for pain and suffering will be capped.

In addition, in Ontario insurance companies have lobbied the government to skew the laws in favour of insurers. If you’ve been involved in a car accident, you need to show that your injuries are both “serious and permanent”. Serious means just that, the injury needs to be serious such that it effects your everyday life. And permanent means just that as well; your injuries need to last for the rest of your life. If your injuries really hurt for a few months, but then they go away completely afterwards, your injuries will not be permanent and you will not be able to sue for pain and suffering. This barrier to recovery is called the “threshold”. The threshold was established for the benefit of insurers to keep claims down. That way, the insurer would not have to pay out on every little claim made, because it would not meet the “threshold”. Also, insurance companies for have lobbied government such that the first $30,000 for each claim under $100,000 essentially vanishes in car accident claims. This is called the “deductible”. If your claim is over $100,000, the deductible does not apply. Both the threshold and the deductible work to reduce the amount of claims being made, and work to reduce the monetary damage award to accident victims.

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