Mediation

Published on: March 14, 2018

De-Mystifying Mediation in your Personal Injury or Long Term Disability Case (Ontario)

99% of personal injury cases settle without going to trial. Between the time a notice of the claim is given, right up to the commencement of trial, there are many opportunities for your personal injury lawyer, the insurance lawyer, and the insurance adjuster to settle your case.

One of those big opportunities to settle your case is through mediation. Mediation presents a great opportunity to do so because for one entire day, all of the lawyers and adjusters set aside their other files and focus solely on getting your case settled.

Mediation is not a trial. Mediation is not an arbitration. Mediation does not involve a Judge or Jury making rulings on your case. Nobody “wins” at mediation. Mediation involves compromise.

Mediation is a confidential, without prejudice settlement meeting between the parties which is presided over by a neutral third party mediator. The mediator can be a retired judge, a lawyer or a non lawyer who now work as a mediator. Having a mediator with expertise in the area of law being litigated is important. So, if the mediator is a retired family lawyer, but they are mediating a long term disability claim, the mediator may not have the requisite expertise to get the job done.

Plaintiff personal injury lawyers, insurance defence lawyers, and insurance adjusters attend at mediations frequently. Plaintiffs (ie injured accident victims and long term disability claimants) do not.

For most Plaintiffs, they may have heard of the term mediation before, or they may have participated in a mediation in a different sort of case (family, work, union, etc.); but their personal injury mediation is likely the first time they have participated in a personal injury mediation. The process can be intimidating. After all, it’s likely your first time going through this and there is a lot at stake (your case and livelihood).

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Published on: May 19, 2016

Mediating a personal injury case: What to expect if you’re the injured party (Ontario)

By Goldfinger Injury Lawyers

Mediation is a popular tool used by lawyers to settle personal injury cases in Ontario. In some jurisdictions (Toronto, Windsor and Ottawa) mediating a personal injury case is mandatory before it can proceed to trial. The Insurance Act also contains provisions requiring mediation for an accident benefit dispute in Ontario. Some Courts have even found that a car insurer’s refusal to participate in a mediation is bad faith claims handling and awarded the Plaintiff damages in this regard.

Whether or not a mediation is mandatory; this does not change what a mediation is, and how mediation works.

If you have never mediated a case before, don’t worry. You’re not alone. 99% of our clients have never participated in a formal, legal, mediation before. BUT, 100% of our clients have participated in some form of informal mediation at one point or another in their lives!! Don’t believe me?

Ever had a dispute with your spouse or family member and you needed to call in a close friend to chat with the parties and help solve the problem? That’s mediation. When your Uncle Larry is talking to your Uncle Ned, did you need to call in Grandma to help cooler heads prevail? That’s mediation too!

Mediation is a form of dispute resolution. The nature of the dispute doesn’t matter. If there’s conflict; mediation can help resolve that conflict. Just because the dispute resolution technique isn’t labelled as a mediation, doesn’t mean it’s not.

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Published on: October 20, 2014

How is pain and suffering measured in my personal injury case (Ontario)

By Goldfinger Injury Lawyers

The first thing which comes to mind when thinking about compensation for personal injury law cases is that they’re all about pain and suffering, or general damages as they’re known.

People who focus on in this area know that damages for pain and suffering are significant, but they aren’t the be all and end all of compensation for an injury case. There are MANY more headings and heads of damages for an injury case which can be much more lucrative than general damages.

The purpose of this Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog Post is to examine damages for pain and suffering and how they work.

One of the most commonly asked questions for our lawyers is HOW MUCH IS MY CASE WORTH? MY PAIN AND SUFFERING IS IMMEASURABLE.

As always, these questions are hard to answer in a quick 140 character Tweet. It all depends on the facts of your case, the nature of the injuries sustained, your pre-accident health, pre-accident life style, and how your recover (or don’t). Every case is different, and every award for damages is also different.

A very long time ago, when dirt was young and when there was little to no traffic on the 401 or in the City of Toronto, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled on 3 distinct cases that are commonly known as the “trilogy”, In these case, the Supreme Court essentially ruled that damages for pain and suffering (general damages) were capped.

Unlike the United States, where we see massive awards for general damages in the millions and millions of dollars; damages for pain and suffering in Canada will not exceed around $356,000 or so in 2014. Sounds crazy right? Just $356,000 to measure pain and suffering!?!?! I agree. But the Supreme Court did this for good reason.
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Published on: July 15, 2014

Mediation in personal injury actions (Ontario)

By Goldfinger Injury Lawyers

If you’ve consulted with a personal injury lawyer, then you’ve likely heard, or found out that 99% of these sort of claims settle BEFORE trial.

One of the tools which lawyers use to foster settlement is called mediation.

Mediation is an important step in any legal case. In fact, mediation is so important, that in Toronto, Ottawa and Windsor, mediation is actually required BEFORE a matter can be set down for trial. The Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO) requires that all accident benefit disputes get mediated BEFORE they can proceed to Arbitration or to litigation. if you fail to mediate, then you can’t proceed.

Many clients want to know what they can expect at mediation. It’s a very good question considering that it’s such an important step in your case, and at the end of the day, the case might get settled if the mediation is successful. Mediation can be particularly nerve wracking for many because accident victims have never been through the process before.

The purpose of this Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog post is to get you more familiar with the mediation process; what to expect; and how it works.
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