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People want to know:

“Should I talk with my insurance company about my personal injury or long term disability case“.

The answer to this question may surprise you.

You may hear some personal injury lawyers tell you that under NO CIRCUMSTANCES should an injured accident victim or disability claimant ever speak with an insurance adjuster about their case.

There is nothing wrong with this school of thought. What you don’t say, cannot hurt you. What you don’t say also can’t be recorded and used against you down the road to defeat your claim and credibility. Silence is golden.

But what happens in the situation where you can’t lawyer up in a timely manner? What happens if the insurance company calls you and has a few very simple and basic questions to ask of you which you can certainly answer (address, location of accident, date of birth, what hospital you are currently staying at, whether or not you’re employed or retired). Keep it very simple and basic. You should not share any further details with the insurer without a lawyer, as you will read below.

Your claim, personal injury or long term disability has to get opened so that the benefits can begin to flow. The longer you wait, the longer it will take for the insurer to open their file, assign an adjuster, and hopefully pay for the attendant care, med/rehab and income replacement benefits you need. If you wait to retain a lawyer, this may delay you getting the benefits you need. There is nothing wrong with you calling the insurance company to simply open up a claim and get things started. But when doing so, be cautious of the amount of information which you disclose. Keep things simple and short.

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Winter is coming.

The North winds are blowing.

We the North.

Snow. Sleet. Ice and everything in between.

Some smile at the prospect of negative temperatures. They love the winter!

Others cringe. Count me in on team cringe. I would much rather have nice and pleasant warm weather any day over the ice, cold and darkness that winter brings. I think it’s the darkness and cold that gets me down the most.

Some people have a hard time transitioning from warm weather where one can get away wearing flip flops everyday, to cold weather where winter boots and indoor shoes are more appropriate. Flip flops certainly require less effort to take on and off, and you can wear them inside; so I kind of get it. But, when one makes the conscious decision to ignore the elements; one must live with the consequences….

You would have no idea the number of winter slip and fall cases our personal injury lawyers have seen on account of people who wear flip flops, Crocs, or other non winter footwear outside on icy or snowy surfaces. It’s mind blowing!

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Fibromyalgia is a serious disorder characterized by widespread pain, fatigue, depression, memory loss and other symptoms which vary from person to person.

Some doctors believe in fibromyalgia.

Some doctors don’t.

The same way that some doctors believe that fibromyalgia exists and is a very real and debilitating condition; and other doctors don’t; some insurance companies accept that fibromyalgia is very real and can have a significant impact on a person’s livelihood and ability to engage in day to day activities.

Some insurance companies don’t accept that fibromyalgia is real. They will want to create a narrative that fibromyalgia is a figment of your imagination. They will hope to establish that because you cannot see fibromyalgia on any sort of objective test like an x-ray, CT Scan or MRI Report that it’s simply not there. They will also try to create the narrative that you can fight through or work through whatever pain or ailment it is that you’re experiencing.

This is a false narrative. There are hundreds of thousands of people across Canada who suffer from fibromylagia, and there are countless doctors across the country who treat people for fibromyalgia. Don’t let your insurance company beat you down and crush your hope; because this is exactly what they’re trying to accomplish.

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If you are reading this entry in the Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog, then likely a loved one, family member, dear friend or acquaintance has passed away as a result of the negligence of another party.

We are sorry for your loss.

Thoughts, prayers and well wishes from others are great, but sometimes they aren’t enough. You need action. And that’s where my law firm comes in.

Goldfinger Injury Lawyers has a proven track record of results in getting families the compensation they deserve following the untimely death of a family member as a result of the negligence of another party. Full disclaimer here: past results are not indicative of future awards. We have to include that disclaimer because we’re lawyers.

Many of the fatality claims that we see come as a result of a motor vehicle accident (car vs. car, car vs. truck, bike vs. car; pedestrian vs. car; motorcycle, etc.). Thousands of pounds of steel, metal, aluminium in the form of a motor vehicle travelling carelessly at high speeds will cause devastating and fatal injury.

Here is where things can get confusing for the general public.

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Sand castles are built of sand.

Log cabins are build of wood.

Large office towers and built of concrete, steel and glass.

And personal injury and long term disability cases are built of medical records!

The evidence of any personal injury case establishes the foundation upon which cases are built. The stronger the evidentiary foundation, the stronger the case. And the opposite is of course true.  No evidence, or a lack of evidence will translate in to a weaker case.

The basic evidentiary building block in a personal injury or long term disability case are medical records. These records can be from a hospital, rehab facility, doctors office, specialists’ office, nurse practitioner, rehab clinic, or an OHIP Summary.

Without compelling medical evidence to support the injury or disability, establishing damages (the injury) will be difficult for the Plaintiff and his/her personal injury lawyer to do.

It’s simply not enough for an injured or disabled Plaintiff to get up on the stand and state that they were and remain injured due to the negligence of the Defendant.

Of course a Plaintiff is going to say such a thing. They have everything to gain because they are the lead party in the action. The Plaintiff has a lot of skin in the game.

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Long Term Disability insurance is based on the basic premise that you are too disabled to work, and that you are insured for a percentage of your pre-disability income. This percentage can vary anywhere from as low as 50% to as high as 80%, depending on the wording of the policy along with the riders contained in the policy.

You know what your pre-disability income was. But your long term disability insurer does not.

Chances are, your long term disability insurer has never heard of you, met you, or hasn’t the faintest idea what you do for a living until you’ve applied for long term disability insurance.

Once you’ve applied, the only way the insurance company has a chance to get to know you is on paper; based on the forms you’ve submitted to them in support of your application for long term disability insurance.

A very important form is the Employer’s Statement, or Employer’s Declaration.

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In the world of Plaintiff personal injury law, it’s not uncommon for cases to last a year,  to multiple years. Depending on the severity of the injury, the complexity of the case, the number of parties involved in a case, along with the willingness (or lack thereof) of the parties to settle, personal injury cases can take a lot of time.

From the time your case is issued, up until the time the case is ultimately resolved by way of trial or settlement, a lot can happen. We call this period of time the litigation period.

During the litigation period, it’s unfortunate, although not uncommon for Plaintiffs to get involved in a second, or even a third accident. Regardless of fault, or whether or not the Plaintiff choses to litigate, this second or third accident will be significant and can totally change the dynamic of the personal injury case at hand.

Here are a few examples discussed by personal injury lawyer Brian Goldfinger the principal of Goldfinger Injury Lawyers of how a second or third accident during the litigation period can have a negative impact on a personal injury case.

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September means back to school time. It can also mean back to work time for many adults who have take a summer vacation. That means our commutes are more crowded on the roads. Increased volumes of motorists, pedestrians and cyclists are imminent.

The City of Toronto is in the midst of its Vision Zero comprehensive safety plan to reduce the number of fatality claims and serious injury claims on Toronto streets to ZERO. This is a bold objective. Starting in 2017 and lasting until 2021, Vision Zero believes that serious accident claims are preventable and ought to be totally eliminated.

I’ve not seen very much on Toronto streets when it comes to eliminating pedestrian/bike/car accidents on city streets. Attempts at segregated bike lanes ebb and flow depending on which way City Counsel is feeling that day. Increasing or decreasing speed limits, adding more (or less) red light cameras, better sequencing of traffic lights has been discussed and implemented to some form or extent.

But I would like to share with you a recent observation from right around the block from our Toronto Office near the busy corner of Yonge and Sheppard.

Directly across the street from Goldfinger Injury Lawyers’ Toronto Office is the Catholic District School Board. It’s a busy place, rumbling with students, parents, teachers, administrators etc. Within walking distance are a number of Catholic, Public and Private Schools as well. Right across the street are twin buildings which play host to the Small Claims Courts, Family Courts, OHIP Offices, ODSP Offices, Landlord Tenant Tribunal, accounting offices, law firms, and other professional offices. Across the street in the other direction are 4 high rise condominiums, the entrance to the Yonge/Sheppard Subway, a bustling mall with shops and a food court, along with other professional offices.

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Some of the most difficult, and most emotional cases for clients and personal injury lawyers to handle are car crashes which result in the death of a loved one.

How does one put a price on a human life?

No amount of money will ever be enough to fill the void of the untimely death of a family member.

One of the saddest things we at Goldfinger Injury Lawyers hear from our clients is that they never got a chance to say goodbye to the deceased.

When a family member is terminally ill, at least we have a chance to say our goodbyes and come to terms with their illness. There is no surprise in their passing.linkedin-2-300x300

But when a fatal car crash happens, we never had a chance to share memories of the good times or say a proper goodbye. There is a huge element of shock and trauma which goes along with the news of a fatality case as a result of a car crash because it was so unexpected and it should not have been their time to go. The departed were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. The negligence of an at fault driver has taken their last breath of life and caused a ripple effect of consequences and sorrow for their family and loved ones.

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The personal injury lawyers here at my law firm, Goldfinger Injury Lawyers have developed a unique term for certain long term disability cases.

We call it getting “mathed out“.

What does it mean to get “mathed out“? It means that the math is working against you to defeat your claim, regardless of the merits of your disability.

Let’s explore how long term disability cases work.

These are cases which are based in contract. That contract takes the form of an insurance policy. Often we see our claimants with group policies, which contain sections for health, dental, life, and long term disability insurance. These group policies are a perk of employment (a benefit). Had the person not been gainfully employed, they would not have been covered under the policy; hence they would have no cause of action.

Some employees don’t have any benefits whatsoever, so if they don’t have their own personal long term disability insurance, they won’t have a cause of action.

On one hand the claimant needs to be thankful that they have a policy or long term disability coverage to lean on. But on the other hand, many claimants get upset that the policy seems to work in favour of the insurer and not the other way around.

The wording contained in these policies is written by large insurers. Because large insurers write the policies, you can expect that they contain a lot of favourable clauses protect their own interests and not yours. Why would you expect an insurer to draft a policy that doesn’t work in their favour? We just don’t see this sort of thing.

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