Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog Mailbag

Every year, we dedicate an entry of the Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog to reader questions. These questions are from our trusted readers. So, with today’s instalment, we will dip into our mailbag to answer some of your questions. We aren’t able to get to all of your questions in a single entry, so only a few questions are addressed. If you have any questions moving forward, reach out to us at info@goldfingerlaw.com or on “X” @GoldfingerLaw or your can call us with your questions as well.

1. Is the money which I receive in my personal injury settlement taxable? Do I have to notify my accountant about the settlement?

We aren’t accountants at Goldfinger Injury Lawyers. We’re personal injury lawyers. Accordingly, we can’t give tax advice. If you want tax advise, please consult with an accountant. Having said that, we can tell you that settlement funds from a personal injury settlement art non-taxable. This doesn’t mean that you don’t have to pay HST on legal fees. HST applies to the legal fees which are charged to you, and this will be reflected on your account from your personal injury lawyer.

2. Do I have to tell ODSP or Ontario Works about my personal injury settlement?

Yes you do! In fact, this is very important to do; particularly if you want to continue receiving ODSP or Ontario Works benefits. If you don’t tell ODSP or Ontario Works about your settlement, and the find out that you’ve come in to a large sum of money; these institutions will likely demand a reimbursement of the funds paid out to you and simultaneously terminate payment of benefits until such time as they’ve been paid out what’s owed to them. Often, these institutions will require that you sign an Authorization and Direction to Reimburse; which requires that you or your personal injury lawyer pay them the amount of benefits which have been paid out to you since the date of the accident. This is normal practice, and it’s why it’s important to notify your case manager about the settlement.

3. How long will it take to get my personal injury case settled?

This is the #1 question which we receive from readers and from past and current clients. All of our personal injury lawyers would love to snap their fingers and settle a case on command. Unfortunately, that’s not the way which personal injury cases work. The vast majority of personal injury cases take months, if not years, in order to get settled. That’s the cold hard truth. We aren’t talking about days or weeks. We are talking about many months and years. There’s a lot of reasons for this. For starters, if you are talking about an accident benefit case (car accident, non tort), then the accident benefit insurer is statutorily bared from settling the case within one year from the date of the motor vehicle accident. Any settlement agreement entered into before the first year has expired won’t be legally valid. But, this only applies to accident benefit cases. This does not explain why it can take so long for non-accident benefit personal injury cases to settle. There are a lot of reasons why cases take time. For starters, healing from a serious accident takes time. Chances are your injuries won’t plateau for at least a year, if not longer. If your case settles at the year mark, but you need surgery for those same injuries which you incurred in the accident, the the value of the settlement will not reflect the damages incurred given the pending surgery, recovery time, time loss from work, rehab costs etc. Another reason applies to coverage issues, which can take a long time not only to get sorted out, but for insurers to come to grips that they will be on the hook for. When insurers don’t agree as to a funding formula, personal injury cases take even longer. How about when liability, causation or damages are all disputed? The case won’t settle. How about when there is surveillance of the Plaintiff which causes issues as to the Plaintiff’s credibility? This is yet another wrinkle which will delay any potential settlement. How about cases where there is no insurance at all, and the matter has to be claimed either from the Motor Vehicle Accident Claims Fund (in the case of an uninsured car accident), or personally against a Defendant in a personal injury case other than from a car accident. 

It’s true that approximately 99% of personal injury cases settle outside of Court. But, what’s unknown is for how much. Some cases settle for ZERO, because the cases have no merit, or because the Plaintiff sees too much risk in pushing the case further along; or the Plaintiff simply does not wish to pursue the case any further. It’s impossible for a personal injury lawyer to predict with mathematical certainty how much, or for how little the case will settle. Clients ask for their personal injury lawyers to be fortune tellers and predict the future. Unfortunately, law school does not teach personal injury lawyers to predict outcomes in a crystal ball. Every case is unique and every case presents its own set of challenges. An experienced personal injury lawyer will move the case forward as best as possible and deal with the hurdles presented to them in order to maximize the compensation on behalf of their client as best as possible.