Assaults

Published on: June 21, 2016

Victim of Crime in Ontario? Head to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board

The Criminal Injuries Compensation Board (CICB) is a government body which awards compensation to victims of crime and their families following a criminal act.

It’s an important tribunal because for many victims of crime, it’s the only way they can recover compensation for their injuries.

The first rule of personal injury law (or litigation for that matter) is to sue a party with deep pockets. You can’t get blood from a stone in the Courtroom. So, if you sue, and get a Judgment against a party who can never pay the value of the Judgment; then the Judgment itself is without any value. The only value that the Judgment has is knowing that you won in Court. But winning in Court where the only award is damages is a hollow award.Imagine paying a lawyer $20,000 in legal fees, and the lawyer wins a Judgment for you at trial. But after trial, when the lawyer seeks to recover payment on that $20,000 and cannot deliver because the Defendant is broke without assets, then what value is that $20,000 Judgment to you? It’s essentially worthless.

In a car accident or slip and fall case, there is generally some form of insurance behind the at fault party. In Ontario, driving with insurance is mandatory.

But there is no every day insurance to protect you from an act of criminal violence. The same way that an insurer will not insure people for committing criminal acts.

Unless the at fault criminal is a multi millionaire with debt free real estate holdings, your chances of recover against the at fault party in Court are slim. Keep in mind that the wealthiest of people are normally very good at hiding their assets to make sure that they’re judgment proof.

This is where the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board comes in to play. The Ontario Government has set aside a pool of money to compensate victims of crime and their loved ones following a criminal act. This ensure that innocent victims of crime are properly compensated.

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Published on: March 30, 2016

What every injured accident victim should take from the Ghomeshi Trial (Ontario)

By Goldfinger Injury Lawyers

99% of personal injury cases in Ontario settle without ever going to trial; or without ever seeing the inside of a Courtroom for that matter.

The same cannot be said for criminal cases in Ontario. The government keeps stats on the percentage of criminal cases which go to trial. These stats are displayed on the Ontario Court of Justice website, and vary from month to month, depending on the offense.

There are a lot of lessons which can be learned when a high profile case such as the Ghomeshi case goes to trial. What happened in that downtown Toronto courtroom, isn’t dis-similar to what happens in other courtrooms across the Ontario. The primary difference is the amount of media attention which the Ghomeshi case garnered, and continues to attract.

What the personal injury lawyers at our office found so amazing, was the analysis and evidentiary principals applied in the highest profile sexual assault case we can think of; are VERY similar to the analysis and evidentiary principals which are applied in your run of the mill car accident, slip and fall, or long term disability case.

Our lawyers were also amazed at how many people chimed in on the findings of the decision of the Honourable Justice Horkins, without actually having read the transcripts from trial, read the Judge’s decision, or without having attended at Court in person to listen to the evidence presented.

Very quickly, if you haven’t read the decision from the Ghomeshi case, we urge you to do so. It will be a primer to how our legal system works and how our legal system weighs evidence. A link to the Ghomeshi decision can be found here. Evidence is the building block to any case. Without evidence, our legal system doesn’t work.

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Published on: February 17, 2016

How those tiny cameras have changed the way personal injury cases are litigated in Ontario

By Goldfinger Injury Lawyers

This morning, I saw some of the most gruesome video tape of an assault I have ever seen in my years as a personal injury lawyer. The video depicted a horrific assault of one man, pummelling a defenceless man who had been knocked unconscious from a series of punches to the head. Even though the man being beaten lay motionless on the ground, he was still being punched repeatedly in the face. Unlike a Mixed Martial Arts fight, there was no referee to stop to beating. It continued for what seemed to be an eternity. This was rated “R” footage that would have made anyone cringe. Even a personal injury lawyer such as myself who has seen some pretty nasty images over the years.

As a result of the serious beating, the injured party sustained a fractured orbital bone, along with brain damage. This does not take in to consideration the bruising cuts to the victims face. He had to be rushed to hospital in Toronto following the attack, where he remained for 3 days following his discharge home.

In years past, this assault would have been described by the victim or any witnesses in words; based on foggy memory. Those memories get even foggier as time passes. If the victim or the witnesses had consumed alcohol or drugs at the time of the attack, then chances are those memories are even foggier.

Around 10 years ago, when injured parties and witnesses were asked to provide their best recollection of the events giving rise to the claim, all they had to go was based on these foggy memories, notes, or perhaps photos taken at the scene.

But all of that has changed over the past decade. Cameras have gotten smaller and smaller; and those cameras now have video capabilities. Every cell phone on the market today, with a few exceptions, have both photo capability and video capability. And there are now more cell phones on the planet than people. Cameras are so small today, and can be connected to almost any computer device, they can fit on any surface; from a dashboard cam on a car; to the back of a pen/pencil.

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Published on: November 26, 2014

Jail House Assaults in Ontario: Were lessons learned from Jean Paul Rheaume beating?

By Goldfinger Injury Lawyers

One of the most interesting cases our law firm has ever handled, was a jail house assault matter in Sarnia Ontario.

The Sarnia Jail has been know for its overcrowding issues and violence. When you have too many people under one roof, things are going to get rowdy. When you have too many people under the same roof with poor supervision and deteriorating conditions, things are going to get bad QUICKLY. Nevermind the fact that none of those people in the jail want to be there in the first place.

And things sure did get bad for a client of ours. He was beaten repeatedly with a hunk of cement from a deteriorating jail house wall which was stuffed in to a pillow case to create a sling like weapon. The result was a traumatic brain injury, multiple orthopaedic injuries, along with permanent disfigurement to his fingers and ears. It wasn’t a pretty site.

Where were the guards in all of the commotion? How diid the guards not stop the beating, or prevent it from happening in the first place? Why didn’t the guards see an inmate with a hunk of cement wrapped in to a pillow case to begin with? How on earth does such a violent assaut take place on government premises?

All of these questions and more were asked by the lawyers trying this case.
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