Articles Posted in Goldfinger Injury Lawyers

When there is an emergency, we are trained to dial 911

I’ve had to dial 911 from different communities across Ontario. Every community seemed to answer the phone in the same way. The script went something like this:

“911 Do you need Police, Fire or Ambulance?”

It was very straight forward, direct and clear to the caller. Time was of the essence, and the caller would respond accordingly.

One of the most memorable calls I had to make to 911 was on a long term disability case. My client was being examined for discovery at a Court Reporter’s Office in London, ON. As a result of her condition, in combination with the stress of being examined for discovery, she passed out at the examiner’s table. She was being asked questions one moment; and in then next moment she completely passed out. I had to call an ambulance which took her to hospital. The paramedics (London) were fantastic, and arrived in well under 10 minutes. Needless to say, the examination for discovery was not completed that day. Everyone was shaken up. It was a pretty traumatic experience for all of the parties, including the Court Reporter and everyone in the waiting room. The defence lawyer reported what happened to her client, and the case settled soon after. This time, the pain and suffering was not compartmentalized to the Plaintiff alone. It was one of the few times where an insurance defence lawyer had a front row seat to a Plaintiff’s pain, suffering which impacted their ability to complete their job.

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Recently, my family and I took a family vacation to Europe. We visited Paris, Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Antwerp. We had a blast.

All of these cities are dramatically different than what we see in Ontario cities. As a personal injury lawyer, it got me thinking about those practical and legal differences for what happens when accidents happen in those European cities compared to what happens in Ontario. Here are a few of my observations from our trip.

Each of the four cities which we visited all had dedicated bike lanes, dedicated pedestrian sidewalks, and dedicated roads. Taking things even further, Rotterdam and Amsterdam also had a dedicated tram lane.

Cars, bikes, pedestrians and the tram were NOT expected to share their lane of traffic with each other. They all had their own lanes to operate, in unison. That’s not to say that traffic moved quickly. It was in essence an acknowledgement that having all of these means of transportation share the same roadway is quite difficult. So, instead, the city planners gave everyone their own dedicated lane (with dedicated road signals) to help things move along.

It was quite difficult at times for any one mean of travel (walk, drive, ride a bike or tram) to ride smoothly without getting in the way of another method of travel. Bikes had to look out for cars, pedestrians and the tram and vice versa. There was a lot going on and if you weren’t paying close attention, an accident was inevitable given the volume of different traffic.

The was a strong police presence on the roads of Paris. The officers were either on foot, on horseback, or riding motorcycles. There were certainly some police cars, but far more police were on foot, horseback or on motorcycles. What I found interesting about the police on the motorcycles is that they not only used their police sirens, but they also had whistles in their mouths and would whistle to get someone’s attention rather than put on their sirens. It was an effective technique. The police presence in Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Antwerp was far less than it was in Paris.

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The home office of Goldfinger Injury Lawyers is in North York, near the busy Yonge and Sheppard intersection; a short distance from the 401, with TTC subway access to both the Yonge Line and to the Sheppard Line. It’s a busy area with lots of shops, restaurants, condos, traffic and construction. Finding a parking spot in the area can be tricky because it’s such a busy area.

We are fortunate to have reserved parking at the front and rear of our office. The spaces are reserved for our clients, employees and guests to our law firm.

All vehicles which park on site need to be registered. If they aren’t registered, they will get ticketed or towed.

Safety for our staff is very important. We don’t want any wrongdoers on site up to no good. In the past, we’ve had a few odd characters hanging out or lurking out back. When asked to leave, they did without issue.

But when there are problems, we have to call in for private security, for Toronto Parking Enforcement, or as a last resort, the police.

The purpose of this edition of the Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog post is to share with you what can happen when things get creepy on a private parking lot; and to share with you how even those who are required to uphold to law can fail (which shouldn’t happen, but it does). Our story isn’t a big deal. Nobody was hurt and no damage was done. But when the people who are there to enforce rules/laws and are incorrect in their understanding of the rules; chaos ensues.

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