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Long Term Disability cases are unique in the world of personal injury law. For starters, they are contract cases (the policy of insurance). Every other case in the world of personal injury law is built on tort law. A dog bite, a slip and fall, a car accident case, an assault case, a product liability case. None of these cases are built on contracts. They are built on tort law. Yet, long term disability cases are predicated on the existence of a policy of insurance, and the wording contained therein.

The wording of those long term disability contracts isn’t written by your personal injury lawyer. Nor is it written by the claimant.

Rather, the wording contained in those long term disability policies is prepared by the long term disability companies themselves.

You would be naive to think that they are worded in such a way as to favour the long term disability claimant, as oppose to the long term disability insurer. Quite the contrary. Every word contained in those policies is there for a reason. The words are there to limit the insurer’s exposure and to maximize their recovery. The policies are drafted in such a way as to offer the least amount of money by way of benefits; while recovering the most amount in premiums.

That makes business sense. If you were running a long term disability insurance company, you would want to maximize your returns as well. A mantra of take in more than what you payout in claims leads to profits, which sits at the core to the existence of any for profit business. Insurance companies are in the business of making money. They are not charities.

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For over a decade I have been blogging about personal injury law in Ontario, and across Canada.

Most of the time, I get into the nitty gritty about personal injury law.

Other times, but not very often, I comment about things completely unrelated to personal injury law, but those ideas are on my mind and I want to put my thoughts on wax. This is one of those times.

I have a young boy who is really in to soccer. He plays on a soccer team. He enjoyed watching the World Cup. He loves watching highlights of goals.  When is isn’t playing soccer, he’s kicking a ball around the house.

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Nobody is perfect. People make mistakes. Sometimes they are honest mistakes. Other times, they are avoidable. We certainly don’t expect regulated professionals to make mistakes, but they do. It happens.

But, when a pharmacist makes an error, it can be deadly or result in very serious health consequences.

When a pharmacist makes an error in the dispensing of medication, this is called a dispensing error case. And our law firm, Goldfinger Injury Lawyers has handled countless dispensing error cases throughout the years. Here are some common types of dispensing error cases we have seen.

The Right Medication, but the Wrong Dosage

In these cases, the pharmacists gets the medication correct, but dispenses the incorrect dosage. Too little of the medication often times doesn’t cause much harm (but it can). Take the example of a seizure medication or an anti-nausea medication. Too little won’t have the desired effect. Too much of a certain medication can have deadly consequences. Most common in these cases are the dispensing of methadone. A doctor may prescible a 10mg dosage, but the pharmacist accidentally dispenses 100mg of methadone. Too much methadone can result in seizures, stopping to breath, muscle damage and other issues. Naloxone is a medication which quickly reverses the effect of an opioid like methadone. If you don’t get a Naloxone injection quickly after the overdose, or you aren’t taken to hospital quickly, the overdose can have life long consequences.

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Recently, Goldfinger Injury Lawyers received 2 very positive reviews from clients who we served.

Client #1: 5 Stars 100% I would recommend them! After contacting 7 different law firms in London, regarding my very complex injury, Brian accepted the challenge and took on my case! He was very easy to work with and always quick to respond! He got me the very best settlement he could have, and I am very grateful for his help. He was always very professional and explained everything in detail so that I would understand. I will definitely use him again if I ever require an injury lawyer!

Client #2 : 5 Stars From the first phone call to the settlement day both Brian and Natalia were always there for me to answer all my questions, to up date me on how the malfunction case is going and explained how everything is with cases like mine is going to be done. From September ‘22 is when Brian took my case to March 20th ‘23 when he send me the settlement documents, he worked fast and got me settlement amount that I’m very happy with! If you want to be part of a winning team at Goldfinger Injury Lawyers please don’t waste your time looking for another law firm, at Goldfinger Injury Lawyers they will get the job done the right way without wasting any of your time. Good lawyers, good caring people and very kind lawyer Mr. Goldfinger is! Thank you for everything you done for me!

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Nobody wants to be in an accident.

Nobody wants to slip and fall and get injured.

But if you are going to slip and fall, and get injured; believe it or not, there are some better places to slip and fall vs. some worse places to slip and fall.

And where a Plaintiff slipped and fell can spell the difference between a simple case vs. a complex case; or an easier case to advance vs. a more difficult case to advance.

A Plaintiff has no control over when, where and how they fall. But the location of the fall is more often than not the difference between cases which can be resolved quickly and quietly outside of Court vs. slip and fall cases which get tied up in years before the Courts which are more difficult and complicated.

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People get injured in all sort of ways.

Right now, as you are reading this instalment of the Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog; you probably aren’t thinking that something bad is going to happen to you or a loved one. That’s normal. And that’s why when these sort of terrible or catastrophic events happen; they are called accidents; because they are out of the blue, and unexpected.

When the injuries are catastrophic in nature, having your lawyer establish the nature and severity of those injuries might be the easiest part of the case. A Defendant would look rather foolish attempting to suggest that catastrophic injuries (paraplegia, quadriplegia, or a traumatic brain injury) aren’t very serious, life changing injuries which should be discarded are minor and of no significant consequence.

What can be more challenging for a Plaintiff and his her personal injury lawyer is finding the insurance to pay out for the lawsuit.

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BRR!

It’s cold in out here
There must be a slip and fall
In the atmosphere

BRR!

It’s cold out here
There must be some slippy ice
In the atmosphere

Snow and Ice? Bring it on!

Snow and ice isn’t going to stop you from living your life. But, it can sure making getting around much harder, and more treacherous. We’ve seen some serious cold snaps and snow fall throughout Ontario. This has resulted in slipper winter weather conditions for motorists, cyclists and pedestrians.

The focus of this edition of the Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog will be what personal injury lawyers, insurers and Courts look for when assessing the merits and the value of a slip and call case in Ontario.

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The CBC Reported last month that nearly 58 pedestrians died as a result of car accidents on Toronto’s streets last year; with another 183 more reported as being seriously injured.

This is an alarming statistic given that 2021 was a year that saw rolling lockdowns due to the COVID-19 Pandemic resulting in fewer motorists on the road. Fewer drivers on the road resulted in fewer car accident claims. This trend was reported across Canada and in the United States where insurers saw large windfall profits on auto related insurance products. The savings have not been passed along to the consumer in the form of reduced car insurance premiums, but that’s a story for another edition of the Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog.

The City of Toronto has implemented a bold Vision Zero pledge to reduce the number of auto-pedestrian fatalities and serious injuries down to Zero. It’s a great goal, but since the Vision Zero program was announced, those fatality and serious injury cases to pedestrians have continued to steadily creep up.

Why is that?

Is the City not trying hard enough?

Are Toronto and GTA drivers simply the worst in the free world incapable of hitting pedestrians while driving?

Does it have something to do with the way Toronto’s streets are designed?

What can possibly explain why pedestrian fatality cases are so high in Toronto and the GTA?

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Everyone wants a deal. Bargain hunters looking for deep discounts should look no further than Ontario’s Car Accident System. That’s not to say that purchasing car insurance is cheap. It’s to suggest that car insurers get deep discounts when defending a car accident case. In fact for each case that’s started a car insurance company receives around a $40,000 discount; give or take.

Why would you think about car accidents as a commodity. It’s not like a car accident is a product to be sold and worn like a brand new jacket, a sweater or a pair of pants you’ve just purchased off the sale rack.

But perhaps we should look at car accident cases more as a commodity so that we can better understand how insurers save big bucks on each and every car accident case in Ontario.

The way the laws for car accident cases are set up in Ontario is unfair. Those laws provide more protections to the at fault driver, than they do the injured Plaintiff.

For starters, the injured Plaintiff’s injuries (regardless of fault), must meet a medico-legal test or threshold. If the test is not met, then the injured Plaintiff receives zero dollars for his/her pain and suffering.

If the injuries are not deemed by the Judge to present both a “serious and permanent impairment of an important bodily function“, then the Plaintiff won’t be entitled to general damages for their pain and suffering. That means that regardless of fault; meaning the at fault driver could have been drunk, smoking drugs and on his/her cell phone; if the injuries don’t meet that medico-legal test; then the Plaintiff’s claim for pain and suffering will fail.

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