Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog
The Holidays are a wonderful time. Celebrations with family, friends, co-wokers can be a lot of fun, and a time to reflect on the past year and the year to come.
A few things I would like to comment on with respect to the holidays. Back in 2008, the Goldfinger Personal Injury Law, now Goldfinger Injury Lawyers use to send out a large mailer of holiday greeting cards. They were a big hit. More interesting was the reaction of the people who didn’t receive the cards or who were not on our mailing list. Many found out about our holiday cards, and their reaction to not receiving a card was even loud than those who received one. It sucks feeling left out, but that certainly wasn’t our intention. We simply couldn’t mail out to everyone in the world.
Fast forward to 2015. Fewer law firms are sending out traditional holiday cards in the mail. Instead law firms are sending out e-cards. They’re faster, more efficient, easier to send, less of an environmental footprint, more practical and more economical. We were quick to jump on the trend. It allowed us to reach our client base, along with people we were close with our acquaintances.
Some people replied to our first round of Holiday E-Greetings indicating that they considered our e-cards spam and a violation of Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) which as introduced in around 2014. The simplest definition of spam is unsolicited email, though it can also include unsolicited text messages and software.
Can the Goldfinger Injury Lawyers’ Holiday E-Greeting be considered spam? I don’t know, but I certainly don’t want to test that boundary. Who knows. Someone has a bad day, your Holiday Greeting is the straw that broke their inbox and the next thing you know you are fighting CASL charges for sending out an innocent holiday greeting. Reporting spam is really easy. It’s as easy as a quick click online on this government website.
I cannot begin to tell you the amount of unsolicited holiday e-greetings I’ve received in my mailbox; and likely yours too! Do I want to be the Grinch who reports unsolicited spam in the form of Holiday E-Greetings? Nope. Are there a bunch of Grinches out there who will do so because they’re having a bad day or who want to see you go down in flames? Yup.
So we shifted our focus yet again. Gifts. Who doesn’t want a nice gift around the Holidays? A nice bottle of wine? A box of chocolates? A few gift cards? How about some Goldfinger Injury Lawyers’ swag like pens or branded socks? All fantastic gift ideas. A combination of gifts and traditional greeting cards is the trend we’re back on. Because as far we are concerned, the worry of reaching more people via e-card is thin ice when considering the CASL legislation. Let some other personal injury lawyer be the test case for the holiday greeting.
Now for some quick tips for the Holidays from Goldfinger Injury Lawyers:
- Don’t drink and drive
- Don’t toke and drive
- Don’t text and drive
- It’s never too late to get snow tires. They make a great (and very practical gift) for the person who has it all; except for snow tires
- It’s also never too late to get a great pair of winter boots. Winter boots also make a great (and very practical gift) for the person who has it all; except for a pair of winter boots
On the topic of winter boots, let’s play a little game. Let’s pretend that you the reader are on the jury for a slip and fall case which took place in the winter time on snow/ice.
The person goes to trial and you’re hearing the case. The person was seriously injured as a result of the slip and fall; breaking his/her ankle, requiring surgery; along with hardware in the form of plates and screws in the ankle to hold it together.
The injured Plaintiff is nice enough. But the problem which the lawyer for the Defendant insurer keeps pointing to is that the Plaintiff was wearing sandals/crocs outside in the winter at the time of the slip and fall.
How would you react to this? Is wearing sandals/crocs in the winter not a big deal? Or is it a total deal breaker?
Most people who I have spoken with agree that while wearing sandals or crocs in the winter time isn’t the smartest idea, it’s not a total deal breaker if it’s established that the Defendant didn’t properly maintain their property. If the Plaintiff isn’t likable or credible, the members of the jury will be less likely to give that Plaintiff the benefit of the doubt and will likely side with the Defendant. In any event, if damages are awarded to the Plaintiff in these circumstances, those damages will likely be reduced proportionately to the Plaintiff’s share of contributory negligence.
This means that if a Jury sides with the Plaintiff, but finds him/her 50% at fault for their own injuries, the award will be reduced by 50%.
In a practical example, let’s say a Jury sides with the Plaintiff, and awards them damages to the tune of $100,000; but also finds that the Plaintiff was 50% responsible for the accident and his/her own injuries. The $100,000 award will be reduced down to $50,000 after contributory negligence is factored in to the equation.
It’s for this reason, that winter boots are still a fantastic holiday gift around this time of year. You don’t want to get hurt in a slip and fall. On top of that, you don’t want your personal injury award being slashed in half, or by more than that because a jury finds at trial that your footwear was not appropriate for the winter weather conditions. Keep in mind these are extreme examples, but examples nonetheless of real life scenarios our personal injury lawyers see to clients and to prospective clients. Ask yourself: do you really want to be the Plaintiff with the broken ankle case who doesn’t get compensation because you were wearing sandals or crocs in the winter time? No you don’t!
From everyone here at Goldfinger Injury Lawyers, we wish you and your family a wonderful and safe holiday season.
