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The first long term disability case I had experience with came well before I was a personal injury/disability lawyer.

It happened before I was in law school. It happened to my mom.

She had just gone through multiple surgeries and had not recovered properly, or at all from them. She had been approved for Long Term Disability just before the surgeries took place. She was around 62 years old. After the surgeries, she remained on disability benefits. But shortly there after the long term disability insurer asked that she attend a few “independent” medical assessments with the insurance company’s doctors. She obliged.

Following those assessments, my mom was cut off her long term disability benefits. She was 63 years old, and her benefits were set to expire at the age of 65. She remained at home, in significant pain, and unable to manage her day to day activities of daily living, let along return to any form on employment.

We soon found out that these “independent” doctors who she saw were not really independent. These doctors did minimal to no work through the public OHIP system. Instead, most of their work was generated by referrals from auto insurers, long term disability insurers and WSIB. These doctors did not have a roster of patients who they routinely saw to cure their ailments. Instead, they had institutional clients like insurers, or assessment centres, who referred them people to see on a one shot only basis. After the assessment, they had an army of clerks who would generate reports. The person would arrive at the office for their one and only time to see the doctor. The doctor would check them over, and then someone would generate the report. That report, more often than not went in the favour of the insurer who had referred to doctor the patient in the first place. The doctor would not bite the hand that feeds them so to say.

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The case summary below, involves a car accident in Ontario. It’s not out of the ordinary. This is how many car accident cases across the province play out. The defendant insurer often insists that these cases proceed with a jury, instead of by way of Judge alone.

I think the most unfortunate part of this decision is the toll these jury cases take on Ontario’s already over burdened judicial system. It appears that the Judge hearing this case felt the same way too, given that she made a point to comment specifically on the impact which jury trials have on our legal system:

“The strategy of offering plaintiffs nothing and forcing the matter to a jury trial is highly wasteful of court and public resources. This matter occupied a full three weeks of court time. It also drew on the time of eight jury members (six jurors and two alternate jurors) who could not work during their service. The cost to the public is clearly not something that factored into the Defendant’s calculations when deciding how to conduct this litigation. I find that this was unreasonable.

This is a strong reason as to why civil jury trials ought to be eliminated. There is no doubt that they take time away and resources away from civil productivity in order to litigate private disputes which have no significant or meaningful bearing on the public good. There is no compelling reason as to why this private dispute could not be tried by way of Judge alone. This would save money, time, desperately needed Court resources, and would likely foster settlement knowing that judges see right through the smoke and mirrors presented by many litigants in these sort of cases. Not to mention that they are also familiar with the deductible (the secret credit to insurers of $46,053.20 which lawyers cannot mention at trial). Jury trials in civil actions, particularly car accident cases are a selfish use of public resources for a non public dispute.

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I’ve had a few interesting conversations over the past few days with some very thoughtful, rational, insightful and logical people. These people are not lawyers. They have no skin in the game when it comes to the field of personal injury law. That means that they are neither lawyers, insurance adjusters, service providers, doctors, or lobbyists. It’s always nice to get someone’s perspective on the law, and how they perceive it works (or doesn’t) from an “outsider“.

For whatever reason, they were thinking about how the law worked in Ontario. And, in particular, how auto insurance claims worked. They were thinking along these lines because recently, a friend or family member had either been involved in a serious car accident, or something bad happened to their car which required that they get the auto insurer involved.

All of their experiences shared some common threads.

For starters, the people didn’t understand why the insurance claims system was so complicated. Why did the system need to be so complex, with so many hard to understand forms? It was like you had to have a law degree or some expertise in personal injury just to get the insurer to approve a benefit. And just because a benefit was deemed approved, does not necessarily mean that the money would be flowing in a timely manner.

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Personal injury cases are never as simple as they might appear to be.

The case of an apparently simple slip and fall, just isn’t so simple.

On the surface, the case is very easy to summarize. A person is walking on a private walkway. The walkway was not properly maintained for the winter. The person slips, falls, and breaks their ankle. Ouch!

On the surface, the Plaintiff would sue the private property owner. That makes total sense. The dynamic of the litigation would be a single Plaintiff against a single insurer acting on behalf of the private property owner.

But that’s not what actually happens.

The private property owner is not a single entity. The property is owned by three different corporate entities (that’s three different defendants). All of these Defendants may have different insurers for the loss, or they may have the same insurer under one policy. Your personal injury lawyer can find this out once the litigation proceeds.

The property owners inform your personal injury lawyer that there was a property management company. That’s an additional Defendant to add to the mix, with a different insurer altogether.

Now that the property management company is added, they inform you that there was a winter maintenance contract in place. That’s a 5th Defendant to the mix.

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It may be your first time being involved in a serious car accident where you have sustained serious injuries. These are not common events. And because these are not common events, few people know exactly what to after the accident, or how to deal with their car insurer.

The purpose of this edition of the Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog is to provide you with quick tips dealing with your Car Insurance Company after a serious collision.

1.You deal with your own car insurer first. Ontario  has a no fault system of accident benefits for car accident cases. That means that regardless of fault, the first insurer you will deal with is your own insurer. This seems counter intuitive, but this is how the law works. So, the at fault driver could have been drunk driving, high on drugs, texting on his phone, and ran multiple red lights. It does not matter. The first insurer you will deal with is your own insurer regardless of fault. Weird huh!

2. Watch what you say to the insurance adjuster. When you call most insurers, there is a recorded message saying that the call will be recorded for training and customer service. The call is being recorded so that if you put your foot in your mouth, and say something which is helpful to the insurer, but hurtful to your case; it can and will be used against you moving forward. Many claimants put their feet in their mouths and cause more harm than good in these recorded phone calls with their insurance adjusters. It’s much wiser to let an experienced personal injury lawyer handle it.

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Dogs can be cute, cuddly and well behaved.

But they can also have behavioural issues, or tendencies, which can make them dangerous.

Our personal injury lawyer have seen some pretty horrific injuries resulting from dog attacks. The injuries can be lifelong and quite devastating. The scars from a dog bite, to a place on the body like the face may require plastic surgery and may leave permanent scars which can’t be hidden. It’s not just the physical injuries we see. After a serious dog attack, the accident victim may get triggered whenever they see, or are in close quarters with a dog. Think about needing to go through life avoiding, or fearing dogs. If you think about it, that’s quite hard to do given the popularity of dogs as pets in Ontario.

If you or a loved one has been bitten or attacked by a dog in Ontario, here are some tips and tricks for building a sustainable lawsuit in order to get you the compensation which you deserve.

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Lots of clients want to know about what the last steps are in a personal injury case when the parties reach an agreement. What happens upon settlement? Does the money magically appear in my bank account? When will I receive my settlement funds? Are the settlement funds taxable? Do I have to go to Court to close my file? Is there any other work required of me for my case once the case has settled?

These are all great questions.

With this edition of the Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog, we hope to answer those “late in the case” questions, and more.

Let’s pretend for a moment that after many years of hard fought litigation; and after many arguments between the lawyers on both sides that everyone seems to agree on a deal in order to get the case settled.

The agreement takes place outside of Court, perhaps moments before trial, or perhaps at mediation or in an exchange of emails between the parties.

What will then take place is an exchange of documents between the lawyers which provide clear terms with respect to the terms of the settlement.

Those documents can take form in something called “Minutes of Settlement“. Or, they can take place through a simple letter or email detailing what has been agreed upon. The purpose of this is to confirm the terms of the deal, so that there are no misunderstandings between the parties.

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Yesterday, the Toronto Raptors traded 2x All NBA, 2 x NBA All-Star, 1 x NBA Champion Pascal Siakam to the Pacers for 3 first round draft picks and some players who act as salary filler. Two of the 1st round picks will be late in the first round of the 2024 draft. The 2024 draft is widely viewed a poor draft compared to other years. The third pick will be the Pacer’s 1st round pick in 2026. And, barring injury or a dramatic setback, that pick will be a late round pick as well given that the Pacers are projected to do well.

The haul back for the Raptors is largely underwhelming for a player as talented, dedicated and as accomplished as Pascal Siakam. He is a huge success story for the Toronto Raptor’s scouting and development team. For many Raptor fans, this trade feels like getting 50 cents on a very shinny dollar. There is no way that then Toronto Raptors would attract such a talent still in his prime through free agency. The notion that we are trading him away for little is hard to digest.

But why would the Raptors consider trading away such a talent in the first place?

Good question.

Pascal’s contract with the Raptors is set to expire at the end of this season. The Raptors have tried to extend the contract, without success. Pascal is seeking a “max contract“, and the Raptors are not prepared to pay him those max dollars. So, instead of letting Pascal’s contract expire and receive nothing in exchange, they are trading him away. It’s better than letting him walk away for nothing.

Many NBA teams were not prepared to offer full value for Pascal given that he was under an expiring contract. There was no guarantee that he would re-sign with his new team. The market dictated that they would not pay full price for an expiring asset. This is completely fair, and smart.

But, there had to be a better way. There had to be a way such that the Raptors could get full value for their asset in trading Pascal Siakam. There must have been a sweet spot to pull the trigger on the deal such that the Raptors secured the best possible return for one of the franchise’s best players.

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It has been snowy.

It has been slushy.

It has been drizzly.

It has been icy.

It has been icky.

It has been yucky.

It has been dreary.

It has been mucky.

How else would you describe slip and fall season? Few people in Ontario describe the weather in January as hot, humid and hazy, with blue skies and plenty of sunshine. It’s quite the opposite. The days are short. It seems like we haven’t seen the sun shine in weeks. It’s cold, damp, slippery, and dark.

Around this time of year, our law firm sees an uptick in slip and fall, and trip and fall cases. That’s not to say that slip and fall cases don’t happen year round. It’s just to say that in the winter months we see a spike in these sort of cases. Justifiably so. There’s no ice and better visibility in the spring and summer months. Ontario in the winter is full of icy, slush and snow related hazards.

In this instalment of the Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog, we would like to examine the critical importance which liability plays for a slip and fall, or a trip and fall case.

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A lot of people talk about what it’s like to be a personal injury lawyer, and how the courts work for hearing personal injury cases.

But few explore what it’s like to be a client in a personal injury case; and what to expect, and how to best go through the process. The purpose of today’s instalment of the Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog is to exactly that. It’s our hope that these tips will give you some best practices to make the journey as smooth as possible; and to ensure a positive outcome for your personal injury case.

Tip #1: Lower your expectations. This tip applies both for the duration of your case, and the value of your case. The cold, hard truth is that your case, much like all personal injury cases across Ontario take a very long time to complete. The wheels of justice turn slowly, and personal injury cases are no exception. Insurance companies don’t make a profit throwing money at all cases which cross their desks. They will grind you out and wait you out. But it’s not just insurers which contribute to delays. The Courts aren’t any help either when it comes to personal injury cases. The Courts are under funded, and over worked. They have very limited resources, for a volume of cases which gets bigger and bigger year after year. The Courts are expected to do more work, with less resources. Those limited resources are shifted away from the civil justice system (where personal injury cases are heard), and have been transferred to criminal courts. This is a recipe for disaster when it comes to having a personal injury case heard in a reasonable period of time.

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