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Ontario Motorists will want to read this case. Provincial Court Justice Shaun Nakatsuru ruled that it was alright for a motorist to briefly hold their cell phone while driving. The facts of the case are interesting for anyone to read (lawyer or not).

Disclaimer Alert! This article is not intended to be legal advice and I am NOT advocating that you now go around holding your active cell phone while driving. That’s not cool.

Here are the facts of the case:

On April 26, 2010, the accused KHOJASTEH KAZEMI was returning to work from the CAS in Oshawa. She dropped her cell phone in the car while driving home on the DVP. She did not pick up her cell phone while driving on the highway. She arrived at a red light at the corner of Gerrard St. and River St. in Toronto, and proceeded to pick up her cell phone from the floor of the car.

A Toronto Police Office, PC Miller was standing at the corner on traffic duty. He saw Ms. Kazemi reaching down of the floor of her car, and he believed that she was pressing bottons on a cell phone. PC Miller tapped on Ms. Kazemi’s window and saw that she was holding an open Nokia flip phone (do those even exist anymore?). PC Miller gave Ms. Kazemi a ticket under the new provisions of the Highway Traffic Act (ss 78.1) under the distracted driver provisions of the Act.
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The SABS were changed effective September 1, 2010, requiring that in order to recieve Attendant Care Benefits, and injured party must show that the care giver has sustained an economic loss, and that the expense has in fact been an “incurred expense“. That effectively means that if the care provider was unemployed before the accident, they would NOT be entitled to recieve any attendant care benefits, because no economic loss has been sustained.

What this change to the SABS has done, is effectively limited a family member’s ability to collect attendant care benefits, particularly if that family member was unemployed before the car accident, or a stay at home parent. The rationale is that the attendant care provider would have been at home anyways, so why provide them with any benefits.
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Goldfinger Injury Lawyers is celebrating Brain Injury Awarness Month by donating 100 bike helmets to children in need. Donations have been made to communities in Toronto, London and Peterbourough. Bike accidents, and cyclists wearing helmets are the number 1 preventer of head and brain injury. There has been a lot of discussion as of late in news about what laws and legistlation either need, or don’t need to be enacted in order to prevent brain injury.
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99% of motor vehicle cases settle outside of Toronto’s Courtrooms. Just 1% of those cases actually go to trial. Trials have essentially gone the way of the Dodo (pronounced Dough Dough). Have you even heard of the Dodo Bird? Probably not. They’ve been extinct for many years.

There are many reasons for the decrease in the amount of trials. Here are just a few of those reasons:

1. Mediation and other alternative dispute resolution methods have fostered more out of Court settlements.

2. Trials are expensive and very time consuming. Some car accident cases can take months to go through by the time all of the medical evidence is compiled.
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Ontario has a lot of problems:

Healtcare Poverty Unemployment A stagnant economy Poor schools Slow Courts Decaying/Lack of Infrastructure
But of all these problems, Ontario government has not taken any meaninful steps to make a change. You would think that the problems listed above are very important socio-economic issues which ought to be addressed by government in one way, shape or form. You would think that all of these issues would rank higher when it comes to government policy over something as trivial as car insurance, or the implications of insurance after a car accident. But you’re wrong! Dead wrong!
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We here at Goldfinger Injury Lawyers are pleased to announce that we are in the midst of compiling the “Goldfinger Guide to Fair Compensation in a Personal Injury Case“. Why?

For starters, my lawyer colleagues who do not practice in the area of personal injury law have been asking me for years to compile such a guide so that they better understand the field of personal injury law. On top of that, accident victims, family members of those involved in personal injury cases have been asking my office for years for such a guide. Well, it’s in the process of being written, and as soon as it’s published we will let you know. If you’d like a free advance copy of the Guide, please contact my law office at 416-730-1777 or info@goldfingerlaw.com. As you can see from the adjacent picture, the Guide will make for great family reading at a park on a sunny Sunday afternoon!
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Let me share a story with you. When a personal injury action settles, and there are minors involved (minors being persons under the age of 18), the Court will need to approve the settlement. baby.jpg

The reason the personal injury settlement needs to be approved by a personal injury law judge, is because the Court wants to ensure that minors aren’t taken advantage of. Imagine what would happen if….
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I’m often asked: Hey Brian Goldfinger Personal Injury Lawyer: How do your fees work in a car accident case? Good question.

For starters, we take on about 99% of our cases on a contingency fee basis. This means that you don’t have to pay for your car accident or brain injury case until your case settles. All of our consultations are free free free. What else do you know of in life that’s free? Love? OK. You got me there. But in all seriousness, very few lawyers provide services on a contingency fee basis because of the inherent risk involved with the case. A personal injury lawyer Toronto will invest a lot of time, money and energy into building your personal injury case and risk getting nothing if they don’t recover any money for you.
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Toronto taxi cab driver Adib Ibrahim has been charged with second degree murder arising from a car accident which took place on May 14, 2012 at King and Jarvis in Toronto.

That day, Ralph Bissonnette, age 28, was riding his long board skate board alongside the cab. Witnesses say that Ibrahim and Bisonnette got into some sort of argument, when Ibrahim swerved his taxi into Bissonette’s path, resulting in Bisonnette getting run over by the rear end wheels.

Bissonnette was taken by ambulance to St. Mike’s Hospital in Toronto where he was pronounced dead. The Highway Traffic Act defines skateboarders as pedestrians.
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It seems as if every criminal lawyer across the City of Toronto has been interviewed about the murder trial of Michael Rafferty. In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past few months, Michael Rafferty was recently found guilty of 1st degree murder, kidnapping and sexual assault on Victoria Stafford of Woodstock Ontario.

So, what does this Toronto Personal Injury Lawyer have to say about this criminal trial? First: thank goodness it’s over. I can’t fathom what the Stafford Family has been going through over the past 3 years. Imagine the pain, anxiety, hate, rage, suffering, and sadness the Stafford family has endured over this period of time. You can’t put it into words.

Secondly: the law really needs to change on the status of warrants in the country. Why you ask?
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