Articles Posted in Insurance Coverage

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Goldfinger Injury Lawyers receives a lot of inquiries from people looking to advance personal injury cases arising from assaults.

An assault can take place in a variety of ways, in a variety of different places, between a variety of different people.

Think of it as a game of “Clue“. One day it can be Colonel Mustard, in the Conservatory, with the Candlestick. The next, it could be Professor Plumb, in the Ballroom, with the Lead Pipe. There are millions of different scenarios.

What does it mean to “win” one of these personal injury assault cases?

First, it’s important to make a distinction between a criminal case, and a personal injury case.

There is no compensation awarded to the assault victim in the criminal case. The assault victim is an innocent victim of a crime who stands to win nothing from the outcome of the criminal case. If the Crown is successful in proving that the accused broke the law, then the accused will be punished according to the law. This punishment can take form in many different ways. Normally, we see jail time, parole time, restrictions on gun ownership, restraining orders and/or payment of a fine to Court. The Judge can also order a payment of restitution, which is NOT an award for pain and suffering to the victim of the crime.

On the other hand, a personal injury case is all about compensation for the innocent victim of the assault (known as the Plaintiff). Therefore, “winning” a personal injury case for assault means that the Plaintiff is successful in having the Defendant pay them money for their pain, suffering and other damages compensable at law. This is what it means to “win” a personal injury case.

If a Plaintiff’s goal in the personal injury case is just to be an annoyance to the Defendant; then; there are other less expensive ways of doing that. But, if that is their goal, and if money is of no concern to them, then so be it. Lawsuits are a pain and a grand annoyance to deal with for everyday people who are not accustom to litigation. This is why wealthy people like to use lawyers.

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Often people ask me what the biggest factor is for innocent accident victims to receive real financial compensation for their personal injury case. This is a wonderful question.

Sometimes, cases will be strong on damages, but weak on liability.

Other times cases will be strong on liability, but weak on damages.

And other times, cases can be strong on both liability and damages.

But regardless or whether or not the case is strong (or weak), on liability and damages; those factors and not the most important thing to getting a Plaintiff the compensation which s/he deserves.

The largest factor in whether or not a Plaintiff gets paid (or not) is insurance coverage. Simply put, if there is insurance coverage there; and there are no coverage issues; the Plaintiff has a strong chance of getting paid if their case succeeds on damages and liability. But, if there is no coverage there; the Plaintiff; in all likelihood, will not get paid regardless of whether or not their case is strong on liability and damages.

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“Thou shall not lie” is the ninth commandment, and it’s a pretty good commandment to abide by. This is reaffirmed at law when before a witness steps on the stand, or provide oral evidence at their examination for discovery; the witness either swears on the bible or affirms to tell the truth and not to lie.

But people are not followed around by Court Reporters and lawyers in their everyday lives. You are not required to swear to tell the truth before you start your day in the morning. Nor are you required to swear to tell the truth when you fill out some form of application. It’s just expected that you fill in the application truthfully, and not lie.

But, what are the consequences for lying on an application which may be relied on in the Courts? That’s a very good question. If often comes up in the form of insurance applications; like for life insurance, short term disability, long term disability or for mortgage insurance.

Often, at the top of these insurance applications, or on the first page there is some form of disclaimer or warning requiring the applicant to be truthful in completing the application, and identifying the consequences for not being truthful. But, few people play close attention to these details which may not be in fine print. The words might be in bold in order to better alert the applicant to the consequences, yet, they still go ignored in many cases because people have a habit of not reading (or not properly reading) standard forms.

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After hearing the news that long time retailer Hudson’s Bay Company declared bankruptcy, my mind immediately went to the employees at HBC. The part timers. The full timers. The seasonal employees. The student employees. The “lifers”. The night shift employees. The early birds who stock the shelves. The office workers. The shipping and receiving crew. The janitorial staff. Everyone who makes the stores work.

I know that life well.

Before I became a personal injury lawyer, I worked retail at Sears Canada while I was in undergrad at York University. I worked in the hardware department and in the paint department. I saw the ins and outs of a large department store. I learned all sorts of things about paint, tools, brushes, stains, lawnmowers, power washers, dehumidifiers…. You name the home appliance/tool, I knew about it.

But, more importantly, I learned a lot about people from all walks of life, and how large publicly traded companies work and treat their workers.

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Last week I was interviewed by a journalist at the Globe & Mail newspaper (remember those?).

She was writing an article on car insurance, and increasing insurance rates in general in Ontario. She wanted to know what a boots on the ground personal injury lawyer was seeing.

I shared with her a few trends which I had observed over the past 12 months:

  1. Premiums were rising for drivers even if they had outstanding driving records with no claims
  2. Part of the reason which premiums appeared to be on the rise was the increase of auto thefts; coupled with the rise in prices for new vehicles, labour and auto parts. I suspect that the looming tariffs and trade war won’t help in that area. Some reports are suggesting that the price of new cars will go up between 15-25%
  3. But don’t fool yourself: insurance companies will find every excuse in the books to increase premiums. They will deliver less coverage, while charging you more money. You are paying more, and getting less in return.
  4. Our personal injury lawyers have noticed an uptick in uninsured claims.

What is an uninsured claim you might ask? Good question!

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You have been bitten by a dog.

The dog bite isn’t a small one. Rather, it’s quite a serious injury which will leave permanent and emotional scaring.

Your local Animal Control Unit is investigating the case, and has filed charges against the Dog Owner. But the charges, and the potential conviction will not pay for your past or future care costs, let alone compensate you for the pain and suffering which you have endured.

You retain a personal injury lawyer (hopefully one from Goldfinger Injury Lawyers) to help you get the compensation which you deserve.

If your case went to trial, you would win. It’s a pretty “open/shut” case whereby you were in the wrong place, at the wrong time. You did not provoke the dog. It was no muzzled, and the owner had lost control of the dog leading to the attack.

A Judge will have no problem finding liability against the dog owner, and that the dog caused your injuries. Needless to say, a Judge will rule in your favour and order that the Defendant pay you compensation for your injuries and future losses.

But this is not enough for a dog attack case.

Dog attack cases begin, and they end, on insurance coverage. The cold, hard, truth, is that in the overwhelming majority of dog attack cases, an innocent Plaintiff will only get paid the full value of what they are owned when there is insurance coverage for the dog attack. If there is no insurance coverage, then there is a strong likelihood that the Plaintiff will not recover what they are owned, or not make any recovery at all. When there is no insurance coverage, a Plaintiff cannot get blood from a stone.

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Sometimes personal injury cases are investigated by the police.

Sometimes, criminal, or quasi criminal charges will be laid on the Defendant (the at fault party).

What does this mean for your personal injury case, and how will your personal injury case be impacted by these charges and the ensuing police investigation?

Good questions!

This edition of the Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog will attempt to answer those questions, and more!

Criminal and quasi criminal charges happen in all types of personal injury cases.

In drunk driving cases, people are charged with the criminal offense of impaired driving.

In distracted driving cases, or for other driving offenses, people are charged under the Highway Traffic Act.

In sexual assault cases, the offending party can be charged under the Criminal Code as well.

When charges are laid, it triggers a police investigation, regardless of the severity of those charges.

The police have strong investigatory powers in order to complete their investigation into the incident. They can issue search warrants to search property. They can seize all sorts of records (medical, cell phone, business etc.). They can summons witnesses, who tend to cooperate more with police than they would with a personal injury lawyer for a civil case. They can call people in to the police station to give a statement, or take a statement (recorded or videotaped) from the parties in order to get a better idea of what took place.

The goal of the police in their investigation is to get down to the truth of what happened. The evidence which the police gather will assist the Court in determining whether or not the accused is guilty, or not guilty. If there isn’t enough evidence there to support the charges, or there isn’t a likely prospect of conviction, the charges will be dropped (in theory).

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On June 22, 1990, the Ontario Government introduced the threshold for general damages in car accident cases. This meant that each injury needed to be deemed as a “serious and permanent impairment” of an important physical or psychological function. If the personal injury did not meet the medico legal threshold in the eyes of a Judge, then the case on damages for pain and suffering would fail,; regardless of fault. This seemed rather harsh to an innocent accident victim, but it was the new state of car accident law in the Province of Ontario.

The reason the threshold was introduced by the Ontario Government was to reduce the amount of personal injury claims. The fewer claims, the less money that insurers would need to pay out. This would save insurance companies huge sums of dollars. Those savings were intended to be passed along to every day drivers; like you and me. This is important because having car insurance in Ontario is mandatory when you drive a car. That makes car insurance a hot button election issue. Drivers want cheap insurance. Cheaper insurance was the promise from insurers and the government when the threshold was introduced. This was the trade off and the handshake deal between insurers and the government.

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Personal injury cases are never as simple as they might appear to be.

The case of an apparently simple slip and fall, just isn’t so simple.

On the surface, the case is very easy to summarize. A person is walking on a private walkway. The walkway was not properly maintained for the winter. The person slips, falls, and breaks their ankle. Ouch!

On the surface, the Plaintiff would sue the private property owner. That makes total sense. The dynamic of the litigation would be a single Plaintiff against a single insurer acting on behalf of the private property owner.

But that’s not what actually happens.

The private property owner is not a single entity. The property is owned by three different corporate entities (that’s three different defendants). All of these Defendants may have different insurers for the loss, or they may have the same insurer under one policy. Your personal injury lawyer can find this out once the litigation proceeds.

The property owners inform your personal injury lawyer that there was a property management company. That’s an additional Defendant to add to the mix, with a different insurer altogether.

Now that the property management company is added, they inform you that there was a winter maintenance contract in place. That’s a 5th Defendant to the mix.

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The title to this Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog post may strike you as a bit odd; but it’s one of the top questions I’ve been receiving since the horrific terrorist attacks of October 7, 2023.

What makes Canada a great country is that we have all sorts of freedoms. But, these wonderful freedoms are not absolute.

In a multicultural society, and in a more homogeneous society, not everyone is going to agree on the same issues, statements or views. It’s a fact of life.

When people don’t agree, or hear things that they don’t like, they can get mad or upset. This may cause them to yell, or even to say grossly offensive, or racist statements. Things might get so heated that it results in damage to property, or physical violence.

So, when someone is shouting racist, homophobic, vile or antisemitic comments at you or at at group, does this make grounds for a viable civil lawsuit against that person, or group of people?

Great question!

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