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Methadone usage in Ontario has undergone a massive structural expansion over the last few decades, turning what was once a highly restricted clinical treatment into a widespread, community-based pillar (for good or for worse) of public health.

Ontario had only 60 methadone-prescribing physicians and 1,595 patients in 1996. By 2014, the number of active patients grew 30-fold to 49,703. Between 2014 and 2022, a provincial cohort study recorded 137,035. The high concentration of methadone clinics and patients in Ontario is the result of a deliberate provincial policy in Ontario over the span of 30+ years to shift addiction treatment out of hospitals and directly into communities and neighborhoods. If there is a methadone clinic in your neighborhood, it was deliberately put there for one reason or another; likely in order to increase access.

Under the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP), clinics operate on a fee-for-service basis. Doctors can bill the province for frequent, mandatory patient visits (often weekly or bi-weekly) and regular urine drug screenings. Because methadone must be taken daily under direct pharmacist supervision (especially early in treatment), pharmacies earn a continuous, predictable stream of dispensing fees. This economic structure incentivized private companies to open specialized “one-stop-shop” clinics (where a doctor’s office sits directly next to a specialized pharmacy) in high-traffic, accessible strip malls. It created a lucrative private/public business model where for profit clinics have emerged.

When high volume meets a drive for profit, we tend to see errors and lapses of quality control. This isn’t good for any business or service; particularly one which dispenses methadone to people in need. Taking too much methadone can make people very sick, or worse, it can be lethal. Unfortunately, at Goldfinger Injury Lawyers, we see dispensing errors from methadone clinics happen all too frequently.

Truth be told, we didn’t really see many of these types of methadone dispensing error cases 20 years ago. That was because methadone clinics weren’t as widespread, and there were fewer people prescribed with taking methadone. By 2026-27, methadone clinics are abundant in Ontario (sadly), and the number of people has seen a sharp uptick (sadly as well).

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Slip and Fall cases are incredibly nuanced, fact dependent and more complicated than you would think.

Slip and Fall cases would appear to be very basic when compared to the complicated legislation which we have in Ontario for car accident cases. In an Ontario Car Accident case, the client needs to be educated on the concept of a no fault accident benefit claim and all of the forms and regulations which come with that. And to add to the complexity of the case, there’s a tort claim which would seem basic and straight forward, but it’s not with the application of Ontario’s deductible for non-pecuniary damage claims, medico legal threshold for general damage claims; along with the set offs allocated to the tort defendant for any benefits which are coming in. These concepts appear unfair to accident victims. More importantly, they are hard to grasp for accident victims; and catch accident victims by surprise because it appears that the system has been rigged in order to protect insurance companies instead of compensating innocent accident victims who have done nothing wrong except for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. In a day and age where fairness, equal opportunity and equity is really important; the world of car accident law in Ontario didn’t get the memo.

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There are a lot of activities which require the participants to sign a waiver.

A waiver is a legal document.

You would never think of a waiver as a legal document, but it is. Normally, when we think of legal documents, we think of documents which are signed by lawyers or business people in fancy office board rooms. Waivers signed at baseball diamonds, rock climbing centres, pickleball clubs, white water rafting clubhouses, or gymnasiums have the exact same impact as waivers signed in fancy boardrooms by business people and lawyers in fancy suits.

Participants need to know what they’re getting into when the get involved in an activity or sport that requires the signing of a waiver. Most waivers, if carefully crafted, lead to the participant relinquishing their right to sue either the organizers, the people affiliated or working with the organizer, or their fellow participants in the sport or activity. This means that they can’t sue in the majority of situations.

Break your ankle skating over a rut in the ice? Claim denied due to signing a waiver.

Get a concussion from getting hit in the head with a baseball? Claim denied due to signing a waiver.

Bad skydiving accident or scuba accident? Claim denied due to signing a waiver.

ATV or snowmobiling accident from a bad trail? Claim denied due to signing a waiver.

As an aside, Canada is a winter country, and as such, Canadians love to snowmobile. The caselaw on snowmobiling in Canada is rich. Canada probably has the most reported decisions in the world in snowmobile accidents. But, I can tell you that the caselaw in favour of accident victims for snowmobile accidents is very poor. You would think that Canadian Courts would side with the riders. Canadian Courts have not. Time and time again, these snowmobile accident cases go in favour of the Defendants for a variety of reasons (which often include the signature of the waiver).

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Are you familiar with the expression “don’t count your chickens before they hatch“?

It means that you shouldn’t depend or rely on something happening, until that thing or event actually happens.

As a personal injury lawyer, I tend to see a lot of this when it comes to long term disability claims.

People think that just because they have long term disability benefits, that they will automatically be entitled to those benefits. Money will rain down from the sky, and will magically appear in your bank account without having done any work for it; or without thinking about how to get approved for those benefits. They are counting the money before they’ve even been approved. They take the approval part from the insurer (which happens to be the biggest step), as a given.

Receiving long term disability benefits isn’t a given, or some sort of mandatory right that is bestowed upon a policy holder. There are a lot of hurdles which need to be cleared before an insurer will even consider an application. And once all of the paper work has been completed, and all of the forms have been submitted, it still does not guarantee that an application for long term disability benefits will be approved.

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One of my favourite TV shows is Ted Lasso. It tells the story of an American Football coach, coaching soccer in London England. The team intentionally hires Ted Lasso to fail; so that the club does poorly as a revenge plot against an ex-husband who only wants to see his team win. The hope is that by hiring Ted Lasso, a coach with no soccer experience, that the club will fail miserably. Things take many twists and turns, and it ends up that the everyone who knows Ted Lasso, absolutely loves him and would walk through a wall for him.

In the show there’s a saying: “It’s the Hope that Kills You“. This is a long standing British slogan; particularly heard around soccer whereby expecting a good result causes greater emotional pain vs. having no hope at all which will cause no emotional pain when the result doesn’t happen. It’s better to have no expectations and not get hurt, instead of the other way around.

But that’s no way to live, and it’s no way to succeed. It’s a defeatist attitude, right from the start.

In a personal injury case, our lawyers have found for our client that “It’s the Stress (of the case) that Kills You“). Personal injury litigation weighs heavily on the heads of injured accident victims. For most clients, it’s the FIRST TIME they’ve needed to hire a litigation lawyer and sue another party. Having to sue another party is uncommon for most individuals, who can go through their entire lives without needing a litigation lawyer. Once the case settles, or a Judgment has been rendered, it’s like a weight has been lifted off their chests. The stress and anxiety of the litigation which was ever looming like a dark cloud overhead is now gone and they can live again. They are at at peace, even if the result isn’t everything which they expected.

It’s rare that you meet someone who really enjoys conflict. When I mean conflict, I don’t mean physical violence. I’m referring to shouting, screaming, arguing and deliberate attempts to make another person’s life miserable, or as difficult as possible (again through legal and non violent means). Decent people want to live their lives in peace, happiness and harmony. Sure, there are times where there will be differing views and opinions. But, living in a constant state of conflict isn’t easy. Living through conflict, and having to deal with it isn’t easy either. In fact, it can be very emotionally taxing.

Lawyers get in to the practice of law to problem solve, and to deal with conflict. Lawyers are in a constant state of conflict with opposing counsel. If there weren’t a conflict, there wouldn’t be any need for the lawyers to begin with.

Think of a personal injury case. In a world without conflict, a person who gets seriously injured in an accident would automatically be awarded with all of the benefits and compensation which they so desire.

For a person who applies for long term disability; their benefits would get approved no questions asked and no medical evidence required. The money would rain down from the sky.

But this isn’t how the world works, and this certainly isn’t how modern personal injury cases work in Ontario.

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I speak with a lot of people everyday about their personal injury cases. Some people are clients. Some people are looking to become clients. We don’t take on each case that comes in our door. There are a variety of reasons for this.

What makes one case good, but another case bad?

There are a lot of answer to this question. But, a common thread often comes down to timing.

Personal injury lawyers are wonderful problem solvers. They have to use their smarts, creativity, and experience to find solutions to complex problems. Each case is a complex problem. If it weren’t a complex problem, money would rain down from the sky after each and every accident; and there would be no need for seeking a personal injury lawyer because every injured accident victim would automatically recover maximum compensation with little to no effort. But this isn’t how the real world works. Insurers like their money; and they aren’t in the business of paying out big bucks on claims for no reason at all. Even if there is a reason to pay out of the claim, insurers are tight with their pocket books. You don’t make money by paying out on each and every claim that crosses your desk.

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Accidents which take place in Ontario, ought to be commenced in Ontario.

But, it’s not always the case that the Plaintiff resides in Ontario. The Plaintiff can be a visitor to Ontario; or, could have moved from Ontario out of province, or outside of Canada.

When this happens, a Defendant wants some peace of mind knowing that if they win the case at trial, and are then awarded costs; that their costs award can be satisfied. When a Plaintiff lives in Ontario, the Defendant isn’t as concerned with this sort of thing. But, when a Plaintiff resides outside of Ontario, a Defendant has some concerns (rightly or wrongly).

There is a mechanism contained under the Rules of Civil Procedure which call for a Plaintiff to pay money into Court in order to provide security for a potential cost award ordered against them. This is called “Security For Costs” and it’s provided for under Rule 56 of Ontario’s Rules of Civil Procedure. The Defendant will seek permission from the Court in the form of a motion to ask for money to be paid into Court by the Plaintiff to form part of that security. The Judge makes a determination of how much money needs to get paid if an Order for Security for Costs is warranted.

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When my children were you, I would read them all sorts of bedtimes stories, as an parent would. One of my children’s favourites stories was “There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly”.

If you’re not familiar with “There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly”; it’s what you would call a cumulative tale.

A cumulative tale is a story where each new event or character is introduced alongside a repetition of all the previous ones in an expanding sequence. Cumulative tales have a rhythmic patterned build up which drives the narrative. They rely more on patterns and less so on plots.

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly goes a little something like this:

There was an old lady who swallowed a cow;
I don’t know how she swallowed a cow!
She swallowed the cow to catch the goat,
She swallowed the goat to catch the dog,
She swallowed the dog to catch the cat,
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird,
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider
That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her,
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly;
I don’t know why she swallowed a fly – perhaps she’ll die!

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I’m a big Toronto Raptors Fan.

I’m also a personal injury lawyer.

I jump at the chance to marry these two topics for the Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog.

Recently, Kawhi Leonard was fined $700,000 by the NBA for accepting no-show endorsement deals which were brokered by the LA Clippers. It was a slap on the wrist when you look at the amount of money he received in these off court no show endorsements vs. the $700,000 he was fined. He made a lot of money from these deals.

The investigation into his wrongdoing spanned numbers of months and cost millions of dollars in legal fees.

Throughout the investigation, Mr. Leonard denied any wrongdoing, stating:

“It’s easy for me, I don’t read headlines or do conspiracy theories or anything like that. It’s about the season and what we’ve got ahead of us right now. Tomorrow we’ll start camp, and see what we got.”

When asked about the investigation, Mr. Leonard stated: “The NBA’s gonna do their job. None of us did no wrongdoing. And, yeah, that’s it… We invite the investigations. It’s not gonna be a distraction for me or the rest of the team.”

When asked about Aspiration, the company which he received money and stock options from, he stated “It was fraud, as everybody knows. If you want any more questions or details about that company you need to ask the owner or whoever else is involved in the fraud that went on.”

Mr. Leonard’s statements were on the record, which, in the Court of public opinion and in the Court of Public Relations; is as good as a statement given under oath.

Here’s the problem.

Mr. Leonard said one thing on the record; namely that he did nothing wrong and that he was not involved in anything out of the ordinary. But the NBA found it was the exact opposite; and then Mr. Leonard accepted the outcome of the NBA’s investigation.

The contradictory statements speak to Mr. Leonard’s reliability and credibility. He is not a reliable story teller; nor is he a credible witness/party. His hands are not clean; despite the fact that he went on record to the media that he had done nothing wrong.

There is something very wrong with this picture; and it bears consequences.

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Personal injury cases have a rhythm. And believe it or not, that rhythm is similar, but not the same, as our four weather seasons.

Summertime: People are away on vacation. For those who are working, those work days don’t seem to be as long as they are in the fall, winter, or spring. People are away from their desks enjoying the sunshine. They’re out on the golf course, enjoying a beverage on a patio, or up at the cottage. Reaching someone in person can be challenging because they tend to be away from their desks, and less responsive to emails.

That all changes come September and back to school. Back to school for the kids means two things:

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