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When innocent parties get run over by a car, or hit while they’re riding a bike, they automatically think that some for of insurance company will respond to their claim.

On one hand, they’re right: some FORM of insurance should respond. But what form that insurance comes in (private/public/fast/slow) is a different story.

The insurer of LAST resort is the Ontario Motor Vehicle Accident Claims Fund or “The Fund” as it’s known to many lawyers across Ontario.

But, getting the Fund to respond to your claim is not as easy as it sounds, nor are they quick to act in any way, shape or form. After all, we’re dealing with a government entity.

In Ontario, we have a system of no fault accident benefits. That system, is supposed to provide all injured accident victims with support for their rehabilitation costs which are not covered by OHIP after an accident. Physiotherapy, chiropractic care, occupational therapy is all NOT covered by OHIP, except in very limited circumstances, either through the hospital or through Community Care Access Centre (CCAC).
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Our team of lawyers and staff at our firm have seen some very odd stuff this week which we’d like to share with our Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog readership.

There’s no doubt in our minds that what our clients have gone through this week have posed barriers to not only compensation; but barriers to justice all on account of administrative error and incompetence by public/government agencies.

In order to truly appreciate and understand these errors, you really need to understand the car accident and insurance system, and the roles which different actors and government agencies play.

I will do my very best to keep the legal jargon to a minimum so that even people far removed from car accident litigation can understand how these errors and incompetence have impacted persons lives.
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Serious accidents are exactly that. They’re SERIOUS.

They require a skilled, experienced, knowledgable and understanding lawyer to handle your claim.

But it’s not just the legal ups and downs that your personal injury lawyer will handle. A good lawyer, and one who knows what they’re doing, will help you get the rehabiliation and a team of professionals in place so that your treatment never skips a beat once you’re discharged from hospital. There is nothing WORSE seeing than a catastrophically injured accident vicitm who is not getting the rehabiliation or treatment which they need to help them get better. That irritates all of the lawyer and staff at Goldfinger Injury Lawyers. Arghhhhh…..

After a serious accident, it’s likely that you will be kept over at a hospital or a long term care facilty for an extended period of time. Chances are you might be transfered from one bed to another, or from one facility to another.

How long you stay at the hospital or the long term care facility is anyone’s guess. Ultimately, it’s up to the doctor to determine when it’s best for you to be discharged.

It’s important for the injured party and their family to understand that it’s the hospital’s goal to get you out of there, as safely and as efficiently as possible, so that they can free up another bed for another person. Much like a carousel, hospitals and rehab facilities are in a constant state of turnover. Patients come, and patients go. The longer a patient has to stay at the hospital, the fewer people that hospital has the capacity to treat and take on. Ultimately, the hospital or rehab facility wants to get you out of there ONLY when it’s safe to do so. Sorry to burst your bubble that they wanted to keep you there forever…
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If you keep up with the news, you will know there’s a shortage of family doctors. This shortage is more pronounced in rural or remote communities. Perhaps the notion of a shortage of family doctors isn’t accurate, but I’ll let the people at the Ministry of Health and the OMA debate that.

I’m sure we can all agree that people are having a tough time finding family doctors as many people in Ontario are WITHOUT family doctors. Many doctors aren’t accepting new patients.

Family doctors are very important. They represent the front line with respect to medical care and attention when you’re sick, injured or hurt.

In my travels across Ontario, I’m never shocked when people tell me that they don’t have a family doctor or that they haven’t seen a doctor in many years.

Lots of people don’t like going to see the doctor. The doctor’s office may conjure up bad memories, feelings of worry, or helplessness; so going to the doctor’s office isn’t a priority. Or, they can’t find the time in their busy work schedule to see a doctor. Or, perhaps they’ve had no reason for a very long time to get a family doctor when they have no pressing health problems. Or, their community just doesn’t have a family doctor nearby who’s taking on new patients. The closest family doctor might be a few hours drive away and making that drive just isn’t practical.

Our lawyers understand this. But, when an accident happens, the family doctor may be the most important medical professional for your case. Particularly in a chronic pain case.
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Readers of the Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog have asked for quick, easy to understand answers to their legal, personal injury related questions. We try to do this every week, but this week, we’re going to do something a bit different. Instead of focusing on one or two topics, or recent developments in the law; we’re going to give you a rapid fire Q & A with our directing lawyer, Brian Goldfinger (BG). We hope you get something out of this rapid fire question and answer series. If it’s a success, we’ll try to do it more often.

Q: What sort of cases does your law firm handle?

BG: We handle a wide variety of personal injury claims and insurance disputes. From catastrophic car accidents, brain injuries, motorcycle accidents, long term disability claims to dog bite claims; we handle them. Basically, if you’ve hurt or injured, our law firm can find a way to help you out if you have a cause of action and a valid claim.

Q: Does your law firm practice in any other areas of law aside from personal injury claims?

BG: No. We focus on in injury claims, and that’s pretty much all we do. Any legal matters for wills, estates, business law, criminal law, family law etc. all gets referred to my colleagues who focus on on those areas of the law.

Q: It all comes down to money, and our readers want to know how much it costs to meet with you.

BG: Meeting with me is FREE!

Q: But how much does it cost after the free meeting? There’s gotta be a catch.

BG: There’s NO COST after our free consultation. If we like you, and we like your case, then we will take your case on what’s called a “contingency fee basis”. This is a fancy legal term for you don’t have to pay any legal fees until your case settles. That means you pay legal fees at the end of the case, and the legal fees are contingent upon our recovery for you in your case.
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Clients always want to know what sort of damages they can claim in the long term disability case. As previously discussed in the Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog, damages in a long term disabilty case can be limiting.

Unlike a car accident case, there is usually no wrong doer, or tort feasor for the allged long term disability giving rise to the claim. It’s not like a masked bad guy came in the middle of the night and whacked the Plaintiff with a baseball bat and caused them to suffer from fibromyaligia, depression, anxiety etc. Normally, the disability giving rise to the claim is an unfortunate health condition, which nobody would wish upon their worst enemy.

In these sort of instances, when there’s no “bad guy” we can poin the finger at; then there’s no claim for general damages, or pain and suffering damages as they’re commonly known.

The money from these long term disability claims comes from the value of back payments monthly LTD payments owing from the insurer, to the insured. If successful at trial, a Judge will likely re-instate monthly LTD benefits, such that the Plaintiff continues to get paid on a month to month basis.

But clients always want to know what other damages are available in these sort of cases. It’s a very good question, because monthly disability benefits are capped at the monthly disability amount, less any set off (CPP, WSIB, etc.). This can be limiting. But there is potentially more compensation available to a claimant, depending on the nature of their claim.
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Your case is NOTHING without evidence.

Just because you’ve been involved in a car accident, slip and fall, dog bite, or you’re in pain does NOT mean that you have a injury case which has merit.

In Ontario, we prove and establish cases through evidence. If you don’t have proper evidence, then you don’t have a case. You can be the nicest person. You can be the most credible and likeable person. You can be the most articulate person. You can have the most catastrophic injuries ever known. You can be experiencing the worst chronic pain EVER; but without the proper evidence, you don’t have a case.

This is exactly what happened to poor Ms. Nandal in her slip and fall case against the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). (Nandal v. TTC 2014 ONSC 4760 CanLii)

On or about the 18th day of November, Ms. Nandal was walking down the staircase at the TTC’s Kennedy Station in Scarborough, when she alleged to have “slipped and fell on slippery and debris strewn steps, falling down approximately 15 stairs, and suffering severe injuries“.

The gist of this is that Ms. Nandal alleges that she slipped and fell on some sort of debris or garbage, causing her to fall down a lot of stairs. The result was that Ms. Nandal fractured her clavicle.

Ms. Nandal sued the TTC under the Occupiers’ Liability Act, for failing to keep their property safe for public use. Ms. Nandal argued that the debris or the slippery stairs presented a hazard which the TTC knew, or ought to have known of, and failed to clean it up.
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99% of all car accident and injury cases settle out of Court.

1% (or less) of car accident and injury cases do in fact go to trial.

Civil Trials happen in 2 ways in Ontario. They’re either Judge alone; or, they’re Judge and Jury trials.

I just read a very interesting case that was recently released to the public. It was a brain injury trial/psych injury case which the lawyers estimated would take 3 weeks to hear. Instead, the trial took over 6 weeks to be heard. A link to the case can be found here.

Also, interesting to note that in this case, the car accident took place on August 3, 2001. The trial concluded on June 27, 2013, although cost submissions are not due until the end of September 2014. For you stats guys out there who love reading the Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog, that’s 12 years, 10 months and 26 days between the time of the car accident, and the conclusion of the trial (not including cost submissions).

To make matters even more complicated, I believe that the lawyer for the insurance company/defendant in this case may be appealing this decision. That means that the accident victim won’t get ANY money until the appeal is heard, which could take a number of more years.
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A recent CBC News story cited that chronic pain impacts one in five Canadians. That’s a helluva a lot of Canadians who have to deal with chronic pain. In case you’re wondering, “helluva” is NOT a legal term.

Are you suffering from chronic pain? Do you know what it’s like to live day after day with a pain that won’t subside. Do you know what it’s like to deal with pain that’s so bad you can’t focus, can’t concentrate, and causes you energy to deplete such that all you feel like doing is staying in bed all day long?

I wouldn’t wish this type of pain on my worst enemy. Dealing with chronic pain, and treating it are hard enough.

Having to explain your symptoms, along with your daily routine and why you can’t function for an already skeptical insurance adjuster and insurance lawyer are even more difficult.

Making matters even worse is that treating chronic pain isn’t always as simple as taking a pill and hoping that the pain goes away. The wait time to see a chronic pain doctor (commonly referred to as physiatrists, or rheumatologists or some family doctors with special training in chronic pain also qualify) can be over a year.

If you live in a rural community, then finding such a doctor might require travel to a more urban centre. I’ve seen clients from North Eastern Ontario and the Kawarthas travel to Peterborough or to Toronto for treatment. Sometimes they have to travel to Oshawa depending on the availability of doctors.
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When a police officer asks us a question, we’re taught to do our very best to co-operate. Why wouldn’t we want to co-operate with the authorities and help them do their jobs.

When I was young, we were taught in school to answer questions as best as we can. We weren’t very concerned with issues of fraud or breach of privacy as we are today.

Those hard and fast principals go out the door in a legal context.

In a legal setting, when you’re asked a question, you had better make sure that your answers aren’t going to hurt your case, or stop your case from proceeding before it’s even had a chance of getting off the ground.

These warnings don’t apply as much with authorities such as the police, as they would with insurance adjusters.

You would be amazed at the amount of personal and confidential information which accident victims freely give up to insurance companies over a simple phone call or during a simple statement.

After you’ve been involved in a serious car or motorcycle accident, it’s pretty safe to say that either one of the parties or the police will report the accident to the parties’ respective insurance companies.
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