Articles Posted in Accident Benefits

The OCF-10 Election Form is important for your car accident case in Ontario. By completing the OCF-10 Election Form, the injured accident victim is telling the insurance company which benefit they are choosing to receive.

Completing the OCF-10 Election Form incorrectly, or late; can hurt a car accident case and prejudice your right to claim and recovery accident benefits which you will need to help make you whole.

Without further a due, here are Goldfinger Injury Lawyers’ Top Tips on completing the OCF-10 Election Form.

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Completing the Application for Accident Benefits is the single and most important step in any car accident case.

Without a completed Application for Accident Benefits, your car accident case; both for tort and accident benefits won’t get off the ground.

Failure to complete an Application for Accident Benefits can nullify your claim, no matter how legitimate that claim might be.

So where does one start? Good question!

After you’ve been involved in a serious car accident; or accident arising from the use or operation of a motor vehicle (motorcycle; bike/car; car/pedestrian; truck), you will first need to contact your own insurance company.

Sounds crazy right! Why on earth would you have to call your own insurance company to report a car accident that wasn’t even your fault.

But that’s how Ontario’s no fault system of accident benefits works. Regardless if the at fault driver was drunk driving, while texting and smoking cannabis all at the same time causing him to run a red light; you will still need to contact your own insurance company to make an accident benefit claim.

Your own insurance company is responsible for paying those accident benefits. It gets trickier if the injured party is a pedestrian, cyclist, or a passenger without insurance. It gets even tricker if none of the vehicles involved in the car accident didn’t have car insurance. That’s what insurance lawyers and personal injury lawyers are for. Sorting out those tricky and ever complex coverage disputes which insurers seem to love to argue over.

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A recent appeal heard in the Ontario Divisional Court made my blood boil.

Why? Let’s set the context for modern car accident and personal injury law in Ontario.

Being a personal injury lawyer is an uphill battle. It’s a real life David vs. Goliath fight featuring what’s usually an unsophisticated accident victim of limited means who has never litigated a case in his/her life vs. a highly sophisticated multi billion dollar insurer whose litigation costs are a part of its business model.

The Plaintiff is seriously injured and looking to get the compensation they deserve so they can move on with their lives as best they can.

The Defendant is looking to minimize their cost exposure by any legal means necessary. The Defendant insurer will conduct “independent” medical examinations by doctors who are paid directly by the insurer or through third party contractors (also paid by the insurer) to defeat a Plaintiff’s case. The insurer will conduct in person and cyber surveillance to find out what a Plaintiff is up to to defeat their case. The insurer will constantly test and re-test the credibility of a Plaintiff because they don’t believe what they’re saying. The insurer has an unlimited war chest at its disposal.

Those are just some of the pitfalls and hurdles which personal injury lawyers have come to expect from the combative state of modern personal injury litigation in Ontario.

But there are also procedural pitfalls and hurdles which an injured Plaintiff must overcome as well. And it’s one of these procedural hurdles which is the focus of this week’s edition of the Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog.

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Earlier this week I was at lunch with a good friend of mine. He was involved in a car accident a few weeks ago. I (Brian Goldfinger) was the ideal person to lunch with because we could talk about my primary area of practice, personal injury law.

While my friend was driving around his subdivision, another driver ran a stop sign and t-boned his vehicle travelling at high speeds.

My friend’s vehicle was virtual write off; although the insurer is doing everything in their power to salvage the vehicle. It’s cheaper for them to pay for the labour and parts than it is to purchase a new vehicle.

My friend’s air bags deployed. He was knocked unconscious for a period of time. How long is uncertain.

My friend told me how hard the other guy’s insurance company was fighting with him. This seemed odd because the car accident only happened a few weeks ago, and here in Ontario, we have a no fault accident benefit system which is supposed to take away that fighting between the innocent accident victim and the other driver’s insurance company at such an early stage. If there is to be any fighting or disagreement, this would take place at a much later stage.

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Mistakes happen. Part of our job at Goldfinger Injury Lawyers is helping people better understand the law, and how car accident insurance works in Ontario.

Today the Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog is pleased to share Brian Goldfinger’s list of Top 6 Mistakes which people make after a serious car accident in Ontario.

If you or a loved one has been involved in a serious car collision, Brian Goldfinger and the team at Goldfinger Injury Lawyers urge you to read this list carefully to make sure that the same mistakes don’t happen do you or your loved ones. Your health is important and so is your case. Don’t get hurt twice.

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On December 5, 2017, Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa along with Attorney General Yasir Naqvi announced another set of major reforms to car insurance in Ontario. This set of reforms has a grandiose name, much like all of the other reforms which have been introduced in the 14+ years of Wynne rule in Ontario.

The “Fair Auto Insurance Plan” is intended to lower premiums in Ontario, and reduce fraud. Both sound like great things. Haven’t we been trying to reduce premiums over the past 30+ years? In that time period, have your premiums gone down? Have the premiums of your neighbours, friends, family members or loved ones even gone down in the past 5 years? Likely not according to our very informal survey of asking real people if their premiums have gone down.

The Fair Auto Insurance Plan is based on the recommendations from the Marshall Report, created by former head of the WSIB David Marshall. The Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog covered the Marshall Report entitled Fair Accident Benefits, Fairly Delivered in a previous entry here. If you haven’t read up on the Marshall Report, I suggest that you do if you want to better understand what the Liberal Government is hoping to accomplish.

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Car accident cases in Ontario should be simple.

The premise of one car, hitting another car by mistake or negligence; and thereby causing damages/injuries to another party ought to be basic tort law.

Unfortunately in Ontario, this couldn’t be further from the truth. The Ontario Government, at the behest of large insurers has created a system whereby the rights of people are not equal to the rights of large insurance companies. This system has become very complicated.

The law has been crafted in such a way as to minimize the exposure/risk for insurers to boost their profits, at the expense of everyday people like you and me.

I have never met an individual unaffiliated with car insurance industry (doctor, therapist, adjuster, lobbyist, lawyer, insurance company employee/agent) who has lobbied for changes to accident benefits or the Insurance Act. Yet, major changes to accident benefits and the Insurance Act happen on a near annual basis.

The election issue of lowering car insurance premiums was admitted by Premier Wynne to be a “stretch goal“. But reforms to the accident benefit system, and how tort claims proceed through the Courts was not a election issue. Yet these items are constantly being tinkered with at the expense of innocent accident victims to bolster insurer profits.

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Our personal injury lawyers constantly field questions from prospective clients regarding the basic steps of what to do after they’ve been involved in a car accident in Ontario.

We must admit, the laws surrounding car accidents in Ontario are confusing. They certainly aren’t straight forward by any means. It comes as no surprise to our lawyers that people have questions, and LOTS of them!

This is why our law firm has put forward this easy to understand claims guide in order to assist you after you or a loved one has been involved in a car accident, motorcycle accident, or have been hit by a car as a pedestrian.

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