Articles Posted in Premises Liability

Published on:

By

The first wave of calls have come in following Toronto’s Ice Storm of 2013. Lots of angry and frustrated people out there. But who can blame them?

The ice storm has been called the most devastating storm to hit the City of Toronto and the surronding area in decades. Some call it the worst storm EVER.

Our thoughts go out to the thousands of families who remain without heat or power around the GTA. Our Toronto Office at Yonge and Sheppard was without power for 3 days. Business came to a stand still. But having not power at our law firm pales in compairison to all those without heat or power in their homes for the holidays.

This is where COMMUNITY comes in to play. Be a good neighbour and check up on the elderly, disabled, or those who live alone. Don’t leave fires unattended. Don’t use a generator inside of your house. Make sure that the batteries in your carbon monoxide detector are working. 9V battery? put your tongue to it. If your tongue burns; then your battery is good. No burning? Then no power. That’s some caveman advice for you.

One of the biggest misconceptions during the storm were the reporting numbers of the amount of people left in the dark. The Hydro Authorities and Municipalities identified the number of “customers” without power. The term “customers” does NOT mean people. This means buildings, houses, businesses etc. Reporters in the media didn’t seem to understand that customers didn’t mean people. So, when they heard customers, they confused that number with people.

Toronto Hydro estimated that each customer represented around 2.5 people or so. Accordingly, 1 customer = 2.5 people according to their estimates. So, when Toronto Hydro indentified that approximately 315,000 “customers” were without power at one point in time; that meant that 787,500 people were without power (or MORE according to their estimates). This distinction between “customers” and people is SIGNIFICANT as the multiple increased by 2.5x.
Continue reading →

Published on:

By

Yes. I know. Cute Game of Thrones reference. Which, by the way, season # 4 is scheduled to begin in early 2014 and…spoiler alert…the first episode will feature the death of an important character. Who you ask? You’ll have to wait and see.

In any event, the temperature is dropping across Ontario. I visited the Peterborough Regional Health Sciences Centre earlier this week and it was COLD. I was in Mississauga Friday for a discovery and it was COLD. I was in London this week and it was COLD. A client of mine from the Kitchener-Waterloo area told me that it had snowed 10cm overnight. I’m told that it was snowing in Barrie and in parts of Northern Ontario. Winter’s coming to the Province, if it’s not already here.

So, before the streets and sidewalks get too messy to drive on, here’s a friendly reminder of what you should do in order to be safe this winter on our roads.
Continue reading →

Published on:

By

Happy Halloween from Goldfinger Injury Lawyers! Halloween’s a fun Hallmark Holiday which everyone can enjoy. I remember getting really excited to go out trick or treating and returning home with bags full of candy.

But, in my years of work, I’ve seen some nasty accidents which occurred on Halloween night. Trip and falls, pedestrian/car collisions, drunk driving accidents. Where I grew up, there was also a fatality where a driver lost control of his car and collided with a tree. The driver didn’t survive the crash.

Nasty things happen on Halloween night. Don’t believe me? Here’s an interesting assault case and social host liability case based around a young adult party at a parents’ home which got out of hand on Halloween night. The case was tried at the Superior Court in Ontario. The young adult hosts served 56 bottles of beer, 24 bottles of vodka coolers, along with 2 bottles of rum, one bottle of vodka and a bottle of peach schnapps. Guests also brought their own alcohol. An assault ensued at the party, and the young adult host, along with the parents who owned the house got sued by the victim. It’s an interesting read and just goes to show that some crazy stuff happens on Halloween night.
Continue reading →

Published on:

By

There is a cost to justice when you pay your lawyer by the hour. And that cost doesn’t come cheap.

Personal Injury Lawyers are the only lawyers I know who routinely and without blinking, take on cases which last years and years on end, without getting paid on an interim basis. We don’t ask for any monetary retainers. Essentially, we take the case for free and then, through skill, wit, hard work, experience and determination; achieve a monetary settlement or secure a judgment for our clients.

I cannot think of any other business or industry which operates on such a model. Want to get your house painted? The painter will likely ask that you pay a deposit, or pay for some materials up front. It’s only after the painter receives that deposit that the painter will begin to work. The painter will then get paid the balance upon completion of the job.

When you visit the dentist, they invoice you or your insurer immediately after treatment. If you’re not happy with the dentist’s work, the invoice still comes. There’s never any real risk that the dentist won’t get paid.
Continue reading →

Published on:

By

I just wanted to begin this Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog Post by first making quick reference to one of my previous entries. It’s the one dealing with how the OPP’s privacy legislation can impact your case, which was published on July 30, 2013. You can check it out in the Archives of the Blog here.

Our office received 2 OPP Motor Vehicle Accident reports last week; along with the police officer’s notes, driver statements, witness statements etc. from 2 different accidents. We paid around $150 for each set of records. That’s $300 for all you math majors out there.

The purpose really for requesting these records is to find out who’s the bad guy, where they live, their license plate # and other information so that we can track these wrongdoers down, and conduct any criminal or offense investigations in relation to this particular accident, or previous accidents. You also want this information in order to get the address for service of the Statement of Claim. You can’t serve a claim on a person without an address with an Order for the Court for Substituted Service.

What did we get from the OPP?
Continue reading →

Published on:

By

We had a few inquiries this week from concered parents who have their kids in daycare. The parents were concerned after a toddler unexpectedly died at an unlicensed daycare in the City of Vaughan, just north of Toronto.

If you haven’t read about the story, here’s a great article from the Toronto Star. The article shows a photo of the daycare; which, for all intents and purposes appears to be an ordinary, single family detatched suburban home.

Investigations have yet to reveal the cause of the child’s death. We don’t know if the child died on account of poor supervision, or on account of natural and sudden causes or otherwise. Either way, it’s a tragic story which has raised a lot of concern from the community and the rest of the province of Ontario.
Continue reading →

Published on:

By

Calls resulting in injury from winter time trips, slips and falls are very common at our law firm. We see an increased amount of calls as a result of slipping on snow, ice, black ice, cracked pavement, slush and general wet conditions around the winter time. And for good reason. The weather in such places as Toronto, London and Peterborough is frankly quite bad, and puts everyone at greater risk of injury. If you were living in a warm climate, you wouldn’t have to worry about any of the winter hazards which Ontarians encouter every day having to endure our harsh winters. My parents would tell me that we have it good compared to the cold, ice and snow which they experienced in early Toronto. It’s a fact that our winters are less harsh then the winters which we presently experience; but I will have to leave that explanation to a climatologist from Environment Canada.

Quick injury lawyer factoid: Did you know that you can check the amount of snow fall/precipiation using the Environment Canada website? This is a handy tool for any winter time slip and fall claim in order to establish how much snow was on the ground the day of; or the days leading up to the accident. If one of our clients slipped and fell on a large patch of ice, we can tell from the Environment Canada website whether or not the property had been maintained based on the weather and precipitation/snow patterns.
Continue reading →

Published on:

By

Let me set the record straight. I’m no conspiracy theorist. But some things make me wonder. The recent release of the confidential Hillsborough Disaster papers is one of those things that makes me mad, and re-inforces my passion as a personal injury lawyer.

Let me give you some background.

In the 60’s hippies and protesters used to have a slogan “Don’t trust anyone over 30“. The slogan highlighted the generational gap, and the ideological differences between parents, grandparents and their children. For me, this sort of slogan drove home the point not top trust our leaders, or those who control the reigns of power. At that time, the younger hippies and protesters weren’t in any sort of positon of power or great wealth. Rather, they felt that their elders (those over 30) held those positons of power, authority and wealth. They felt the socio-political system in which they were operating was tilted to serve the interests of the older generation and not the new generation. This reached its climax with the Vietnam War.
Continue reading →

Published on:

By

One of Goldfinger Injury Lawyers’s clients was recently profiled in the Peterborough News x3 for a bar assault claim. You can read all about our client’s story in the Peterborough Examiner’s article; the Peterborough This Week’s article; you can watch the footage on CHEX-TV in Peterborough below:

 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsVTMgTsAOU
 
Continue reading →

Published on:

By

One of my first high profile personal injury cases was a dog bite case. A Toronto woman, walking her American Eskimo therapy dog was attacked by three off leash pit bulls in the park of an apartment complex. The American Eskimo named Simba was bitten relentlessly by its attackers and then torn to pieces. Its pure white as snow coat was stained red in its own blood. The owner of the dog witnessed the three pitbulls tearing her poor Simba to pieces. She tried to stop the attack and shelter Simba from the two attacking dogs. Smelling blood, the pitbulls continued their attack on the woman, tearing into her arms, legs, back, neck and abdomen. Simba died and the owner was injured both mentally and physically.

The case garnered media attention in the Toronto Star and Globe and Mail. Here’s a link to the excerpt from the Globe and Mail article.
Continue reading →

OTLA American Association for Justice Lexpert Ranked Lawyer
Contact Information
Toronto Office
167 Sheppard Ave W
Toronto, ON M2N 1M9
Phone: (416) 730-1777 Toll Free: (877) 730-1777 Fax: (416) 730-0955
London Meeting Office
341 Talbot St
London, ON N6A 2R5
Toll Free: (877) 730-1777
Peterborough Meeting Office
420 George St N #313
Peterborough, ON K9H 3R5
Toll Free: (877) 730-1777
Kitchener Meeting Office
290 King St E
Kitchener, ON N2G 2L3
Toll Free: (877) 730-1777
Owen Sound Meeting Office
1051 2nd Ave E
Owen Sound, ON N4K 2H8
Toll Free: (877) 730-1777

Past results are not indicative of future results.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Please do not include any confidential or sensitive information in a contact form, text message, or voicemail. The contact form sends information by non-encrypted email, which is not secure. Submitting a contact form, sending a text message, making a phone call, or leaving a voicemail does not create an attorney-client relationship.

Copyright © 2024, Goldfinger Law
JUSTIA Law Firm Blog Design