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Bicycles and motorcycles aren’t equipped with the same safety features as the other motor vehicles which they share the roads with. There aren’t any airbags, re-inforced steel doors or side curtain absorption cushioning on any motorcycles or bicycles on the roads. Bikes and motorcycles have to share the roads with much larger, heavier and stronger vehicles. Dedicated bike lanes are few and far in between in our cities. Bikes and motorcycles are an afterthought on our roadways. But when a motorcycle or bicycle is involved in a car accident; it’s often front page news because the injuries are so severe and can often be life threatening.

A helmet may protect your head, but it may not be enough to save you from serious injury in a bike or motor cycle accident. Brain injury, loss of limb, spinal injury, skin grafting and broken bones are common place in bike and motorcycle accidents.

Given the severity of the damages in these sort of accidents, why would you even risk not contacting a personal injury lawyer right away? A personal injury lawyer will ensure that your rights are protected and help you get the medical and financial support in your time of need.

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Many people who have been hurt or injured in an accident ask me why they should contact a lawyer. What will a lawyer do for me that I cannot do for myself?

The answer is simple. A personal injury lawyer will protect your rights to ensure that your claim is protected and to ensure that you are not taken advantage of by the insurance company opposite your claim.

For many, a traumatic accident such as a high speed car accident or bicycle accident represents the first time that they’ve experienced dealing with a serious personal injury claim. As a first time accident victim, you will not have any idea where to start.

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Evidence in personal injury cases includes but is not limited to hospital records, ambulance reports, witness statements, police records, photographs of the accident scene, photographs of injuries, medical reports, employer’s records, tax returns, OHIP summaries, bank statements and the list goes on.

The problems is that evidence can disappear making an accident victim’s case that much more difficult to prove and that much more difficult to quantify. Take the slip and fall case on an icey patch of pavement. If photographs are not taken of the accident scene immediately, it will be nearly impossible to fully appreciate how the accident happened and who is at fault. We can certainly make educated guesses, but knowing with certainty how large the patch of ice was, where it was, and how slippery it was will be very difficult to re-create completely. What about the lay witness who saw the person slip and fall on the ice. If your lawyer does not get their contact information immediately and conduct an interview, it’s possible that witness may not be reachable in the future because of an address change, they may have forgotten what happened, or they may simply no longer want to co-operate. What about the injuries to an accident victim? Blood, breaks and bruises heal. If your lawyer does not have photographs of what those injuries are, it will be very difficult for the insurer, judge or jury to fully appreciate the extent of the damages to the accident victim.

Pictures, whether they are of an accident scene or of injuries are powerful evidentiary tools used by all Plaintiff lawyers to help their clients prove their cases. The more pictures which a Plaintiff lawyer has to prove their case, the better. But if accident victims wait too long to contact their lawyer to build their case; evidence gets lost, damaged and photos may be impossible to attain; thereby hurting the accident victim’s case.

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Car insurance is meant to compensate and protect drivers from any loss or damage arising in the use or operation of a motor vehicle. Typically, if you are an at fault driver in an accident, your car insurance will pick up the bill for the damage which ensued. Driving without insurance or driving an uninsured car is against the law. You will likely be fined for doing this.

But what happens in cases where two cars are involved in an accident and neither car or operators have car insurance? What happens to pedestrians who don’t have a car and don’t have insurance that are hit by cars without insurance? What happens to bicycle riders without car insurance who are struck by cars without car insurance? How do these accident victims get compensation for their injuries if there is no source of insurance to claim from?

The government of Ontario has set aside a fund of money to compensate accident victims without car insurance, who are struck by cars without car insurance. It’s called the Motor Vehicle Accident Claims Fund( http://www.fsco.gov.on.ca/ENGLISH/insurance/auto/mvacf/). It is meant to be a fund of last resort for accident victims who have been victimized by drivers operating their cars without insurance. The Motor Vehicle Accident Claims Fund will compensate accident victims up to $200,000 in tort damages which include pain and suffering. They will also step in as a fund of last resort to pay accident benefits in the event there is no other source of insurance to claim such benefits.

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Social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace have become increasingly popular over the years. People use these website to post information about themselves, post photos, even videos. These websites are intended to be a fun way to network and interact with others.

Accident victims who start legal actions often make claims that their lives have changed since their accident. People complain of constant pain, fatigue, depression, anxiety and being unable to enjoy their activities or their lives like they did before their accident.

Traditionally, insurance companies have requested mountains of documents and medical records to substantiate and confirm the accuracy of an accident victim’s personal injury claim. Insurance companies are now starting to look to less traditional avenues to get all the dirt they can on an accident victim’s claim.

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We recieve many calls at our office from accident victims who want to know how long they have to sue for damages arising from their accident. You have 2 years from the date you knew or ought to have known you have a cause of action. The date that you knew or ought to have known you have a cause of action, is, more often than not, 2 years from the date of the accident. The limitation period to bring your action is set out in an Ontario statute called the Limitations Act, 2002. The Limitations Act, 2002 replaced the old Limitations Act. There is little a lawyer can do to change the limitation periods as set out in the statute, aside from present your case in such a way to show that your case was in fact commenced within the limitation period.

If you try to sue outside of a limitation period, the insurer will likely attend before the Court and seek a Judge’s persmission to have your claim struck for being brought outside of the limitation period (this is called a motion). If the insurer is sucessful, not only will your claim be struck, but there’s also a good chance that you will have to pay for the insurer’s legal costs for bringing your claim outside of the limitation period. No Plaintiff lawyer wants this to happen to their client; especially when they know their client can’t afford to pay for the insurer’s legal costs.

Ignorance of a limitation period is not a defence. Even if you are newcomer to Canada, and you have no idea how limitation periods work or what they are; this will not protect you.

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If you’ve been hurt or injured in a car accident in Ontario; there’s a complicated set of rules that you need to follow if you’re planning on making a claim for your injuries, lost wages, damages for pain & suffering or just getting the insurance company to fix your car. Keep in mind that insurance companies won’t pay for any of these things if you don’t report the accident. So if you plan on collecting from the insurance company, you will need to report the accident to them. If you don’t; you’re risking losing out on valuable benefits described in greater detail below; not to mention any monetary damages which you might be entitled to.

Ontario has what’s called a “no-fault” set of rules for car accidents. What this means is regardless whose fault the accident is, you’re entitled to a wide variety of benefits to assist you when you need it most. These benefits are generally paid for by your own car insurance company. If you didn’t have car insurance at the time of the accident, the Insurance Act provides a series of priority rules to set out who is responsible for paying for your benefits.

The benefits which are paid out under Ontario’s “no-fault” system are called “accident benefits”. Accident benefits are a wide variety of benefits which cover a wide variety of categories. These categories include such things as:

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One of the first things I’m asked is how do my fees work in personal injury cases. This is particularly important to people after an accident when they aren’t working and aren’t earning any income as a result of their accident.

All lawyers have different fee structures. Some lawyers ask for money up front. Some lawyers charge their hourly rate as the case goes, and you if don’t pay that hourly rate, they won’t work. Some lawyers work on a contingency basis.

Contrary to popular belief, contingency fees are legal in Ontario. A contingency fee agreement means that the lawyer will not ask you for any fees until your case settles. Once the case settles, your lawyer will take a percentage of the award to account for their fees. The lawyer takes a big risk in this sort of agreement because they risk not getting paid at all if they can’t recover anything for your case. But, this agreement is particularly good for the client and their family, because they don’t have to worry about paying their lawyer or funding the costs of the case until the case is resolved. Personal injury lawyers understand that it can be very difficult for accident victims to fund their cases; which is why many personal injury lawyers have embraced contingency fee agreements for their clients. This is very important, because it gives people who wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford the cost of a lawyer, access to the courts and access to justice.

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After you’ve been hurt of injured in an accident, there are a few important things to be certain of:

Consult a lawyer who concentrates in accident claims immediately. There is a limitation period in Ontario to sue. This limitation varies, depending on the facts of your case and the sort of accident. But, generally, you have 2 years to sue from the date of the accident. There are all sorts of other limitation periods which you need to be aware of, which is important to consult a lawyer immediately to ensure that your right to sue is protected.

See your family doctor immediately after the accident. Hospitals generally rush their patients out to make room for more patients because they’re so busy. Sometimes people are discharged from hospitals with poor follow up instructions or improper treatment or medications. See your family doctor. They know you best. If you don’t have a family doctor, ask around.

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