Articles Posted in Car Accident

Published on:

By

The calls keep rolling in to our law firm. I’m proud to say that I’m the lawyer who prospective clients will speak to. And, I can say based on all of my years of in-taking such calls that every body thinks they have an AMAZING case that’s worth like a million…no way…5 million…no way….100 million dollars.

Don’t get me wrong, multimillion dollar personal injury cases in Ontario do exist, but they are not the norm.

To put it into perspective, your standard Ontario car insurance policy has limits of $1,000,000. That means that if a drunk driver hits and injures you, there’s nothing stopping your lawyer from suing that drunk driver for $10,000,0000. But, if policy limits are just $1,000,000, your hopes of recovering that additional $9,000,000 are few and far between. Ever hear of trying to get blood from a stone? Same idea applies here.
Continue reading →

Published on:

By

Every year around this time, Ontarians gather around the radio (old school) or TV and tune in the CTV, CBC, Global or CP24 to listen to the Premier or Minister of Finance go through the details of the provincial budget.

The government in power will make grandiose promises like cutting spending, while at the same time providing more in services. Other promises like slashing taxes, but at the same time collecting MORE tax dollars and making better use of those tax dollars. How about paying less in compensation but demanding more work of civil servants. Or attracting better talent but offering less in salary and benefits compared to other sectors. All of these promises is just a bunch of sucking and blowing. Ever trying sucking and blowing at the same time? Go ahead. Give it a try. Still haven’t found a person able to do it. If you’re that lucky person, please let me know.

At the end of the day, the Toronto Injury Law Blog always comes back to car accidents and personal injury claims. The budget usually has an impact on how personal injury cases run.
Continue reading →

Published on:

By

On January 3, 2003 Leslie Brown was driving her car on RR#9 southwest of Napanee, Ontario. The road way icey. She lost control of her vehicle while travelleing down a hill, and then hit a loaded propane truck.

Ms. Brown sustained a traumatic brain injury. She has no recollection of the car accident on account of post traumatic amnesia. Her doctors have told her that she will never be able to return to her job again. She will require 24/7 attendant care for the rest of her life. Never mind caring for her children, she will need somebody to care for herself for the rest of her life.

Ms. Brown sued Lennox County and the Town of Napanee for failing to properly maintain their roads. She alleged that had the roadways been properly salted and sanded, that the car accident never would have happened. This is what we injury lawyers refer to as a Muncipial Liability case. These cases are always tricky as the standard to prove negligence against a Munipaility is much greater than then standard of proving negligence against a regular individual.
Continue reading →

Published on:

By

Lots of injury and insurance lawyers across Ontario have been looking for some guidance with respect to what sort of cases rightly, or wrongly fall in to the Minor Inury Guideline or MIG as it’s known in the industry.

If you’ve never heard of the MIG, that’s ok. You’re not alone. Probably 99% of Ontarians have never heard of it, despite of the fact that it now applies to 100% of insured motorists in the province.

After a car accident, people are entitled to no fault benefits from their car insurer. These no fault or accident benefits are intented to help the accident victim get better following the collision. They pay for such things as physiotherapy, massage, chriopractic care, occupational therapy, speech language therapy, or just a gym membership.

The MIG was introduced by Ontario’s Provincial Government and took place effective September 1, 2010. Insurers and their lobbysists pushed for its introduction. Essentially, it allowed insurance companies to cut your medical and rehabilitative benefits from $50,000 down to $3,500. The justification for this was that insurers were paying too much to litigate matters, too much on rehab following car crashes, and spending too much money on fraud. Here is a copy of the MIG
Continue reading →

Published on:

By

Spring is here. Well. Kinda. The snow has melted in some parts of Ontario at least. I was in Thunder Bay 2 weeks ago and the snow hasn’t yet melted there, but it’s starting to. The snow around the Peterborough office is slowly melting. And I can say without a great big smile on my face that the snow around the London and Toronto offices is now completely gone.

Toronto Injury Law Blog readers seem to love my lists, so without further ado, here are Brian Goldfinger’s top 5 safety tips for the springtime. Keep in mind that these tips won’t keep you or your loved ones 100% safe, but they will certainly reduce the risk of serious injury related to accident. I’ve developed these tips after years of seeing how accidents happen, and after years of seeing the mistakes which people begin to make after a long hard winter season.
Continue reading →

Published on:

By

Clients are constantly asking me for the best way to get the insurance company to pay for treatment following an accident.

There are no quick and dirty legal answers to this question, but there are certainly a few routes which need to be explored. While we have a great OHIP system here in Ontario, some forms of treatment simply aren’t covered by OHIP, or they take far too long to get via the public system.

The first question one must ask is whether or not you have private medical benefits offered through your employer, or a private insurance plan. Some people have work coverage for up to $500 in massage, physio, chiro treatment etc offered through their workplace. This would be your first source of recovery for treament funding, regardless of whether or not you’re entitled to accident benefits or not. Under the Insurance Act, the law requires that your first exhaust your private or “collateral benefits”, before you can even touch your accident benefits via Ontario’s complicated No Fault Accident Benefit Regime.
Continue reading →

Published on:

By

What does it take to be an expert injury lawyer? Many lawyers claim to be experts, but very few are. Many lawyers claim to have the experience, know how, savoir fair and the resources to maximize the recovery for your case, but how can you trust these claims?

The reason for this topic in my Toronto Injury Law Blog Post this week, is because I was recently retained by 6 new clients whose files were all in the hands of self professed “expert lawyers“, and they were completely unsatisfied by the level of service and results attained to that point in the case. Upon reviewing the file, it was clear to me that limitation periods had been missed, benefits which should have been claimed were ignored, and clients were not getting the medical benefits or medical treatment they so desperately needed. It was clear to me, and to the lawyers at my law firm that these “self-claimed experts” did not know what they were doing. It was as if it was the first time they had handled a personal injury case in Ontario. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I felt shock, anger, and sympathy for my clients all at the same time. You try that. It’s a whirlwind of emotion.
Continue reading →

Published on:

By

One of the most common questions we get from clients here at our law firm is “what does it take to have a sucessful accident case“? Essentially, people want to know what they can do in order to maximize their recovery and reduce their waiting time. It doesn’t matter if the client is from Toronto, London, or Peterborough; the question is always the same.

For starters, there is no short or easy answer to this question, and similar fact questions. Every person is different, every injury is different, every accident is different, which makes every case different.

There is also no such thing as “winning” a case. If you’re really hurt, then no amount of money will ever compensate you for your lost health. WIll a million dollars help you walk again if you’ve been rendered a parapeligic following serious car wreck on Highway 401 outside of Woodstock? Think about it.

What we tell people is that they ought to focus on their wellness and rehabilitation. The rest will take care of itself. The more which people focus on their legal case, the more anxious, worried and frustrated they will get. There are countless legal hurdles which need to be overcome by a skillful lawyer which all take time. Add to that the limited resouces in Ontario’s Courts and at FSCO which contribute to a long delay, you might be waiting a long time until your case sees the inside of the Courtroom, let alone settle.
Continue reading →

Published on:

By

We get lots of calls at our law firm from accident victims across Ontario all with the same simple inquiry:

“I’ve been hurt in a car accident. I applied for accident benefits through my car insurance company. And now the car insurance company isn’t paying any accident benefits! Why is that and what can you do to help me?”

Our lawyers do our very best to help every person who calls our office with such an inquiry. We understand that people become very dependent on the benefits which an insurance company provides for them following a serious car crash. An insurer may pay you up to $400/week for an Income Replacement Benefit. They may pay you up to $1,500/month in an Attendant Care Benefit. They may also be paying for your massage, physiotherapy, pain management clinic, psychological counseling, or some other form of treatment which is not covered by OHIP. On the other hand, an insurance company may refuse to pay you anything.

There are plenty of reasons why your accident benefits might not be getting paid. Maybe you’ve changed your address and you haven’t replied to any letters which the insurance adjuster has been sending you? Maybe the insurance company hired a private investigator to take photos/video of you and caught you doing the death walk along the top of Toronto’s CN Tower. Maybe you haven’t even completed the requisite paperwork to get your case started in the first place.
Continue reading →

Published on:

By

Imagine that you or a loved one sustained a left leg crush injury requiring amputation, 6 broken ribs, an orbital bone fracture, a tib/fib fracture, a pelvic fracture, internal bleeding along with a traumatic brain injury involving a subdural hematoma. Not pretty. It’s likely that your injuries would be categorized as “catastrophic” under the Insurance Act.

Often, following these catastrophic injuries, the client has a difficult time getting back to their pre-accident state of mind or physical self. The client might have a difficult time managing their activities of daily living, work duties, self-care duties, housekeeping and home maintenance, along with a whole other slew of activities of daily living which are difficult to predict.

The focus of this Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog Post will be on mental capacity, and not physical capacity. The reason for that is in Ontario, mental capacity is very important for any personal injury case.
Continue reading →

OTLA American Association for Justice Lexpert Ranked Lawyer
Contact Information
Toronto Office
167 Sheppard Ave W
Toronto, ON M2N 1M9
Phone: (416) 730-1777 Toll Free: (877) 730-1777 Fax: (416) 730-0955
London Meeting Office
341 Talbot St
London, ON N6A 2R5
Toll Free: (877) 730-1777
Peterborough Meeting Office
420 George St N #313
Peterborough, ON K9H 3R5
Toll Free: (877) 730-1777
Kitchener Meeting Office
290 King St E
Kitchener, ON N2G 2L3
Toll Free: (877) 730-1777
Owen Sound Meeting Office
1051 2nd Ave E
Owen Sound, ON N4K 2H8
Toll Free: (877) 730-1777

Past results are not indicative of future results.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Please do not include any confidential or sensitive information in a contact form, text message, or voicemail. The contact form sends information by non-encrypted email, which is not secure. Submitting a contact form, sending a text message, making a phone call, or leaving a voicemail does not create an attorney-client relationship.

Copyright © 2025, Goldfinger Law
JUSTIA Law Firm Blog Design