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I was just visiting my local bank. All across the banker’s desk were glossy flyers advertising critical illness and mortgage insurance. Behind the banker’s desk, there was a lovely poster which again, promoted critical illness and mortgage insurance.

The promotional material paints a very nice picture of what critical illness and mortgage insurance can do for you; should things go terribly wrong.

 

The narrative went something like this:

“I was diagnosed with terrible cancer…Thank goodness I had critical illness insurance with (Insert Name of Bank/Insurer here). Thanks to (Insert Name of Bank/Insurer here) I was able pay off my debts and live with dignity”.

The photo featured a happy and smiling family. Other photos showed a person who appeared to have a very serious and worried look on their face. Either way, these advertisements really drew on the heart strings.

In theory, critical illness and mortgage insurance policies are fantastic. In theory that is. When you get diagnosed with a “critical illness“, or with a “disability“, then your insurer will automatically pay out a lump sum cash benefit. No questions asked. This sounds great; doesn’t it!?

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Dear Ontario Drivers:

I am writing to update you on recent legislative changes that affect your car accident claim; in particular your Accident Benefits claims with your own insurer. There are two sides to any car accident lawsuit; the Accident Benefits file with your own auto insurer, and the main action against the driver who caused the accident. The Accident Benefits file is meant to provide money up front to cover things like income replacement (in part) and treatment expenses. It is important to get everything you can from the Accident Benefits side of the law suit so that you can maximize your recovery and reduce the losses from the car accident. The changes to the law are on the Accident Benefits side.

As you may know, when your insurer refuses to pay for a benefit, you have the right to apply to the Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO). The process starts off with a Mediation teleconference where we try to convince the insurer to pay. If that fails, we proceed to the next step, being the Arbitration, where an Arbitrator makes an official ruling as to your entitlement, or lack thereof, to the benefit in dispute. The insurance company has to pay a $3,000.00 fee towards the Arbitration – we only pay $100. The Arbitrators who decide on the issues are known to be quite fair and whenever there is an ambiguity in the law, they tend to interpret the rules in favor of the injured party. Furthermore, the Arbitrators’ decisions are binding on one another, so if an Arbitrator makes a general ruling about an issue, the insurance companies tend to accept it easier knowing that another Arbitrator will likely make the same ruling. For the above reasons, the FSCO process is an acceptable form of dispute resolution although it is far from perfect and there are often long delays before you get a decision.  Continue reading →

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The winds of change aren’t just blowing for car insurance in Ontario. They’re howling! Over the past 8 months, Ontario’s government has announced a major overhaul to how personal injury disputes arising from the use or operation of a motor vehicle are dealt with.

Why is this important to you?

For starters, if you drive a car, or a passenger in a car and sustain any sort of injury, then these changes will impact you. Secondly, it’s the LAW if you drive a car or motorcycle to have insurance. If you drive a motorized vehicle without insurance, then you’re breaking the law and you don’t want to do that. Because car insurance is a requirement, then it ought to be GOOD, and not a hollow policy.

In Ontario, we have a no fault system of accident benefits. These accident benefits are there to protect policy holders, like you and me. The intent of the accident benefit system and the surrounding legislation is CONSUMER PROTECTION LEGISLATION. We are getting away from that “Consumer Protection” part as each day goes by.

Here are some of the highlights from the drastic changes which will kick in effective April 1, 2016 and June 1, 2016:

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The stereotypical image of an injured accident victim in a personal injury case involves a person in a wheelchair, wearing a neck collar, with multiple casts on their legs and arms. Their lawyer is pushing the wheelchair from behind, in to a Court room, parading them before a Judge and Jury so that they can get an appreciation of their injuries.

Some paraplegia and quadriplegia accident victims are certainly like this. These case are no joke. But not every case is a involves paraplegia or quadriplegia.

In most cases, broken bones mend such that the injured accident victim is no longer in a cast at the time of their trial, hearing or mediation; which can take up to 5+ years to get to following a serious accident if things get delayed.

Most injuries are invisible to the judge, jury and insurance company. These might be scars under concealed clothing. Or they might be injuries to the brain, mind, psyche, emotions and cognitive abilities of the injured party. These injuries cannot be seen at first blush. But with some probing and some digging in to the medical evidence, they will come out with the assistance of a skilled lawyer by your side.

Following a serious accident, one of the first things which a lay person first notices are the physical injuries like the broken bones. What can get missed are those other invisible injuries I’ve just eluded to. Unlike broken bones, which can get better over time; these invisible psychological and cognitive injuries get worse and become more pronounced as time passes.

These invisible injuries often come on when somebody bumps their head, losses consciousness or sustains a concussion following a traumatic accident. The accident can be severe such that an MRI picks up spotting on the brain. Or it can be light such that the head simply whips back against the head rest causing a bad knock to the head whereby your mood and cognitive symptoms get worse over time. When these sort of injuries occur, lawyers are able to categorize them as brain injuries. All brain injuries are severe; although some are more pronounced than others. There is no magic pill to make a brain injury go away. There is no cast for the brain. No magical cream, balm, application or band aid to make the brain better. It’s a delicate organ in your body that can’t be replaced.

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Here’s the scenario:

You’ve been working diligently for the same employer, at the same job for years. You’ve given it your all. Countless hours of pain staking work. The job pays well. You have some great colleagues at work. And you have a benefits plan that you believe is fantastic. Part of that so called benefits package is disability insurance; which; in theory; you’ve been told will cover your wages if for whatever reason you can’t return to work on account of injury, illness or disability. You know little about the disability plan because you’ve never had to use it before and you’ve never missed out on work for a prolonged period of time. Your past work attendance has been excellent. Your performance reviews are always top notch.

And then; things happen to change. Some really bad luck. A fall here that never quite heals. You throw out your back on account of a minor slip and fall. Or perhaps chronic pain starts to take over your body such that you can no longer focus, get out of bed or function like you used to. Or maybe you just aren’t the same person any more on account of psychological illness like anxiety, depression, sadness or a combination thereof. Perhaps you’ve been diagnosed with chronic pain or fibromyalgia. Whatever the reason, disability happens. Unfortunately, it’s a part of life for many. And when disability happens, you would hope that your long term disability insurer and employer are both there to support you when you need the help the most. After all, you’re the all star employee who has given it his/her all over the past 10+ years at work.

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This morning, I saw some of the most gruesome video tape of an assault I have ever seen in my years as a personal injury lawyer. The video depicted a horrific assault of one man, pummelling a defenceless man who had been knocked unconscious from a series of punches to the head.  Even though the man being beaten lay motionless on the ground, he was still being punched repeatedly in the face. Unlike a Mixed Martial Arts fight, there was no referee to stop to beating. It continued for what seemed to be an eternity. This was rated “R” footage that would have made anyone cringe. Even a personal injury lawyer such as myself who has seen some pretty nasty images over the years.

As a result of the serious beating, the injured party sustained a fractured orbital bone, along with brain damage. This does not take in to consideration the bruising cuts to the victims face. He had to be rushed to hospital in Toronto following the attack, where he remained for 3 days following his discharge home.

In years past, this assault would have been described by the victim or any witnesses in words; based on foggy memory. Those memories get even foggier as time passes. If the victim or the witnesses had consumed alcohol or drugs at the time of the attack, then chances are those memories are even foggier.

Around 10 years ago, when injured parties and witnesses were asked to provide their best recollection of the events giving rise to the claim, all they had to go was based on these foggy memories, notes, or perhaps photos taken at the scene.

But all of that has changed over the past decade. Cameras have gotten smaller and smaller; and those cameras now have video capabilities. Every cell phone on the market today, with a few exceptions, have both photo capability and video capability. And there are now more cell phones on the planet than people. Cameras are so small today, and can be connected to almost any computer device, they can fit on any surface; from a dashboard cam on a car; to the back of a pen/pencil.

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This will be a fun edition of the Toronto Personal Injury Lawyer Blog. First, we would like to congratulate our founder and directing lawyer, Brian Goldfinger, on his recent naming to the Legal Elite for 2016 by London Business Magazine. The Legal Elite recognizes the brightest and best legal minds in London, ON and Southwest Ontario. This is Brian’s second consecutive year being named to the Legal Elite. We are glad to see all of Brian’s hard work representing injured accident victims and disability claimants getting some fantastic positive recognition in the community. None of this could be accomplished without the hard work from the team of hard working lawyers, law clerks, rehabilitation professionals and support staff at Goldfinger Injury Lawyers which have helped Brian fight on behalf of his clients. A big thank you to everyone behind the scenes for making this award possible.

Here is a link to the feature article on Brian Goldfinger being named to the 2016 Legal Elite by London Business Magazine.

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Litigating Long Term Disability Claims (LTD Claims) can be tricky, especially when the injury is an invisible one; such as chronic pain or a psychological injury.

Firstly, it’s important to note that Long Term Disability Claims aren’t your typical tort or pain and suffering claims. These are special sort of cases.

What this personal injury lawyer means by that; is that the insurance company didn’t intentionally hire a hit man to whack you over the head with a sledge hammer to cause your pain and suffering. While it may feel like the insurer is intentionally causing you harm, the reality is, that in a vast majority of cases; they didn’t do anything intentional to cause your disability. We acknowledge that there are small exceptions where the behaviour of insurers is so outrageous and so disrespectful that it adds to the harm ; or causes harm. BUT, the reality is, that in most cases, while the insurer may have contributed to your harm by their denial of your claim, in the vast majority of cases; they likely didn’t cause you to be disabled in the first instance. The classic example of this was as stated: they didn’t hire somebody to hit you with a baseball bat to cause you to go on disability. Your health can deteriorate over time for a wide variety of reasons. Stress and anxiety from a denied LTD claim? Sure. But there are likely a wide variety of factors which have led to you being disabled from working.

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Goldfinger Injury Lawyers has four offices. Our first office opened in Toronto. This was followed by our second office in Peterborough. Our lawyers have long driven up and down a beautiful stretch of highway known has Highway #115. This is an Ontario Provincial Highway that connects Peterborough to Toronto by Highway 401. Highway 115 begins near Newcastle, and then proceeds north and ends at Highway 7 in Peterborough.

In the summer months, many cottage goers in the Kawarthas zoom along picturesque Highway 115 driving by quaint farmer’s markets, ice cream stands, kitschy motels, burger stands; sprinkled in with a few Tim Horton’s type of restaurants. It’s a beautiful drive in the summer.

It’s also a glorious drive in the fall with the changing of the autumn leaves.

The winter is when this drive can get dangerous. Not unlike many smaller highways in Ontario, Highway 115 isn’t particularly wide. It has two lanes for northbound traffic, and two lanes for southbound traffic.  The highway isn’t particularly well lit. There are no lights in most sections of the highway which can create visibility problems. Highway 115 is straight for the most part, so drivers may have a tendency to be aggressive on the gas. Or, they may not even realize how fast they are travelling.

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As the title of this edition of the Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog suggests, Winter Time is Slip and Fall time. When the weather starts to get cold, damp, slippery and icy, our law firm sees a spike in slip and fall related calls (sweet rhyme!). Some of these slip and falls result in some very serious injury. Being hospitalized and breaking bones as a result of a slip and fall is not only painful and debilitating; but it can also be very depressing, humiliating and embarrassing.

The reality is that in Ontario, these serious slip and fall claims happen, and we need to best understand how to deal with them so that you get the compensation you deserve.

So, without further a due, below is a quick sampler of the Goldfinger Guide to Better Understanding Slip and Fall Cases in Ontario. We have prepared the Goldfinger Guide in such a way that it’s easy to read, easy to understand, and hopefully; enjoyable as well (as enjoyable as you can get when it comes to reading about slip and falls).

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Contact Information
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167 Sheppard Ave W
Toronto, ON M2N 1M9
Phone: (416) 730-1777 Toll Free: (877) 730-1777 Fax: (416) 730-0955
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London, ON N6A 2R5
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Peterborough Meeting Office
420 George St N #313
Peterborough, ON K9H 3R5
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Kitchener, ON N2G 2L3
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Owen Sound, ON N4K 2H8
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