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One of the most important, and most difficult parts of any personal injury case is the Examination for Discovery. In the United States, Examinations for Discovery are called Depositions. The two are basically the same thing.

A Discovery is a chance for the lawyer acting for the insurance company to ask the Plaintiff/Accident Victim all sorts of questions about the car accident, their lives before and after the accident, along with their injuries. All answers are recorded by a court reporter. All answers are given under oath, meaning that you have to swear or affirm your answers to be the truth, the whole truth so help you G-d.

The discovery is likely the first time that the lawyer for the insurance company gets to meet the Plaintiff face to face, and hear them speak candidly about their accident.
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Last year around this time, I gave our Toronto Personal Injury Law Dot Com Blog readers a series of 5 tips for staying safe around the holiday season. That instalment was such a huge success, and got such great feedback, that we’ve decided to hit you again with another series of holiday tips for staying safe around the Holiday Season.

So, without any further adue, here are the Goldfinger Injury Lawyers Top 5 tips for staying safe for the Holiday Season:
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I can’t begin to tell you the number of calls I get from prospective clients telling me how hurt they are as a result of a car accident, slip and fall, or other traumatic accident; only to find out that their accident happened like a DECADE AGO!

I ask them whether or not they started a claim. They tell me no.

I ask them whether or not they had a personal injury lawyer before calling Goldfinger Injury Lawyers. Some tell me that they tried finding a lawyer but nobody would take their case, or that all of the lawyers they spoke to wanted a big upfront monetary retainer. Others tell me that they never thought of looking for a lawyer. When questioned why they didn’t think of finding a lawyer sooner, they tell me that didn’t think that the passage of a long period of time (like over 2 years) was a big deal; and that any lawyer could help them out of this mess.
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Today Ontario’s Court of Appeal released a landmark decision in Hurst v. Aviva. This decision has an impact on ANYBODY who has been hurt or injured in an accident in Ontario. It relates specifically to accident benefit law, which is a complicated, man made set of laws which gets tweaked every year by the provincial government.

This decision confirms that accident victims deserve timely access to justice when they have a dispute with their own auto insurer over statutory accident benefits.

So, what’s this case all about and why’s it so important? Keep reading and I’ll fill you in!
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As a personal injury lawyer, I get calls all the time from people insisting….swearing….preaching….advocating…yelling at me that they have an AMAZING case that’s so clear cut, only a foolish lawyer would turn the case down.

I often get these sort of calls on long term disabilty cases, and critical illness insurance cases. In case you don’t know, long term disability insurance (LTD) and crintical illness insurance (CI) are both products which you can purchase on your own from a broker, or are benefits through your employer which are to protect you in the event you can no longer work at your own occupation; or in the event you’ve sustained a critical illness such as cancer, or a heart attack. In the case of long term disability insurance, you will recieve a monthly premium which can reflect 75% of your net pre-disability earnings (a monthly benefit). In the case of critical illness insurance, you can recieve a lump sum of up to $1,000,000 depending on how your policy is structured. But, let’s continue on with the stories of those phone calls from people swearing to me that their case is a SURE BET.
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Last week the Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog was in the midst of providing you with valuable tips to complete the OCF-1 Application for Accident Benefits. Now, we’re going to complete this topic on how to properly complete the OCF-1 following a car accident. The fact that it will take 2 (or 3) blog posts to properly complete this topic without rendering you the reader into a coma (likewise to yours truly the writer), should be an indication to you how technical and tedious these forms are to complete.

For your refernce, the OCF-1 Application for Accident Benefits Form can be found on the website of the Financial Services Commission of Ontario here; or at the Goldfinger Injury Lawyers Website in the Accident Benefits section here.
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The most important form to start any personal injury claim following a car accident in Ontario is called the OCF-1 Application for Accident Benefits. This is the starting point for all accident benefit claims. You will not be entitled to income replacement benefits, non-earner benefits, attendant care benefits, housekeeping/homemaintenance benefits, money for massage, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, chiropractic treatment, psychological counselling or even get money for your prescription medication following a car accident if you don’t complete the OCF-1.

I’m always asked by accident victims what the best way is to complete this important form. Today I will share with you some important details on how to complete the OCF-1 properly to ensure that your accident benefit stands a fighting chance.
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Yes. End of post….

Alright, you want some more legal info. Well here ya go.

Around Halloween, I get the odd call from parents telling me that their children were out trick or treating with them, and got a bit too much sugar in their system; and didn’t look both ways before crossing the street. And Blam. A car accident involving a minor happens. We get a lot of these calls from Toronto, because Toronto’s streets tend to be more congested than other areas of Ontario. But that’s not to say that these sort of pedestrian car accidents don’t happen elsewhere in Ontario (London, Peterborough, Cobourg, Oshawa, Belleville)
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Today I watched a great clip from Howard Elmer, a contributor to my favourite car television show; MOTORING TV. Motoring TV is on TSN and its a great show about cars, and the people who drive them.

In this clip, Elmer describes how the Insurance Industry is trying to again cap your benefits because the cost of insurance in Ontario is simply too high. There’s also talk about insurance fraud. But, based on my experience, the fraud you see if far less than insurers insist exists, and is a GTA phenomenon. If have yet to see any sort of frauds outside the GTA (Toronto, Vaughan, Mississauga, Brampton). I have yet to sniff or even suspect auto insurance fraud akin to what might exist in Toronto. In any event, this is a great video clip. Here’s the link to the clip. I couldn’t have said it any better myself. Well done Howard.
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Want to learn about the importance of completing an OCF-3 Disability Certificate after your Toronto car accident? Read on.

The OCF-3 Disability Certificate is a form created by the Financial Services Commission of Ontario. Why they created this, along with other silly forms is still a mystery to me, along with personal injury lawyers across Ontario. It all has to do with Ontario’s complicated no-fault accident benefit regime, but that’s the subject of another post.

In any event, following your car accident, your insurance company will send you a booklet of forms. And when I mean booklet of forms, I really mean it. If you don’t like reading, or you don’t like completing standard forms which require a lawyer to understand, then you’ll certainly have issues with these forms. One of the forms is called the OCF-3 Disability Certificate. This is probably the most important and telling form for you to have completed.
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