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This week the Ontario Court of Appeal released a much awaited decision in the case of Westerhof v. Gee Estate. The appeal raised the question of whether or not the Rules of Civil Procedure allowed only experts engaged by or on behalf of a party to provide opinion evidence for a case; OR whether the Rules ought to be construed more broadly such as allowing ALL witnesses with special knowledge to provide opinion evidence. This later group is much broader broader and could include treating doctors (family doctors) who have not been formally retained by either party to the litigation to provide their opinion evidence.

In order to better understand this case, it’s important to understand what happened in 2010. That year, the Rules of Civil Procedure were amended to create Rule 53.03 which set out requirements, and also set out that an expert must sign a specific form called an Acknowledgement of Expert’s Duty Form (Form #53). Continue reading →

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There are three elements to any personal injury case.

Element #1: Liability: How did the accident happen and who’s to blame? The concept of liability is straight forward in many cases. A drunk driver runs a stop sign resulting in catastrophic motor vehicle accident. Establishing liability against the drunk driver is easy to establish. The driver was drunk and on top of that, they ran a stop sign. The drunk driver is at fault of the car accident. Liability is established. Sometimes liability isn’t so clear and an engineer or another expert will need to be retained to look in to this issue. This expert will be able to tell us whether or not we have a case and whether or not we can place blame on another party of the event giving rise to the litigation.

Element #2: Damages/Injuries: What are the injuries from the car accident. Is it a simple bruise which goes away in a week, or are the injuries severe, like a brain injury along with multiple orthopedic injuries. Understanding this concept is somewhat straight forward as well for many accident victims because it’s easy to visualize and more tangible than other legal concepts. If Superman were involved in a car accident, chances are he wouldn’t have sustained any injuries or damages. Hence: he wouldn’t have much of a personal injury case if Superman weren’t injured. Sorry Superman.

Element #3: Causation: : There must be some form of connection between the Bad Guy Defendant’s conduct and the Accident Victim’s injuries. This term is sometimes called “remoteness of damage” or “proximate cause“. Either way, this third element is the most difficult for accident victims to understand.

Sometimes causation is easy to prove. Suzy broker her leg in a car accident. Suzy is seeking compensation for her broken leg from the car accident. Thomas slipped and fell and bumped his head. Thomas is seeking compensation for his head injury from the slip and fall accident.

But sometimes causation is not so simple/clear. Johnny was in a car accident and hurt his knee. Now Johnny complains of headaches, fatigue and shortness of breath. Alice was bit by a dog and sustained abrasions to her legs. Now Alice is deeply depressed and can’t sleep. Marvcus lived in a mouldy apartment building. Now Marvcus has a bad cough. Marvcus has since moved out of the apartment building but still has a bad cough and can’t sleep properly.

The focus of this edition of the Toronto Injury Blog Post will examine the concept of Causation, along with the pitfalls many of us encounter along the way. It’s dedicated to a fellow colleague of mine based out of Toronto who gave sage advice to me in my youth and was a mentor of sort in assisting me in getting in to law school, so where we go.
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Below is a fantastic write up of Goldfinger Injury Lawyers which will be featured in the “Legal Elite” issue of London’s Business Magazine to be released in February 2015.

After several years working a reliable factory job, Ken didn’t know where to turn.

He was off work with a repetitive strain injury, initially identified as something akin to tennis elbow. Eventually, he learned that was a misdiagnosis. What he really had was spinal stenosis, a narrowing of the spinal canal that causes intense pain, numbness and weakness in the arms.

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We often get calls from people who have received, or are in the process of receiving WSIB (Worker’s Compensation) Benefits and now want to sue their employer.

Let me preface this Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog by stating that our law firm DOES NOT handle WSIB matters. There are a handful of lawyers across the province who practice in this area, but those numbers are dwindling for a variety of reasons which should be the subject of a different blog post.

In any event, there are situations where an employee gets injured in the course of their employment. The employer may file a claim to the WSIB. The reason the employer does this so quickly, is because it’s the LAW to report any workplace injury to WSIB and to open a claim.

It’s then up to the injured employee to decide whether or not they want to pursue a WSIB claim, or whether or not they want to SUE using lawyers like the ones from Goldfinger Injury Lawyers. You CANNOT do both! In some instances, you cannot sue regardless of the situation. This all depends on whether or not your employer is designated as a Schedule 1 or Schedule 2 employer. The good people at the WSIB will be able to assist you in that regard. You can find out more information on the WSIB from their website at WSIB.ON.CA
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Readers of the Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog have asked for quick, easy to understand answers to their legal, personal injury related questions. We try to do this every week, but this week, we’re going to do something a bit different. Instead of focusing on one or two topics, or recent developments in the law; we’re going to give you a rapid fire Q & A with our directing lawyer, Brian Goldfinger (BG). We hope you get something out of this rapid fire question and answer series. If it’s a success, we’ll try to do it more often.

Q: What sort of cases does your law firm handle?

BG: We handle a wide variety of personal injury claims and insurance disputes. From catastrophic car accidents, brain injuries, motorcycle accidents, long term disability claims to dog bite claims; we handle them. Basically, if you’ve hurt or injured, our law firm can find a way to help you out if you have a cause of action and a valid claim.

Q: Does your law firm practice in any other areas of law aside from personal injury claims?

BG: No. We focus on in injury claims, and that’s pretty much all we do. Any legal matters for wills, estates, business law, criminal law, family law etc. all gets referred to my colleagues who focus on on those areas of the law.

Q: It all comes down to money, and our readers want to know how much it costs to meet with you.

BG: Meeting with me is FREE!

Q: But how much does it cost after the free meeting? There’s gotta be a catch.

BG: There’s NO COST after our free consultation. If we like you, and we like your case, then we will take your case on what’s called a “contingency fee basis”. This is a fancy legal term for you don’t have to pay any legal fees until your case settles. That means you pay legal fees at the end of the case, and the legal fees are contingent upon our recovery for you in your case.
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When will my case settle?

When will I get compensation for my injuries?

When will my case close?

These are just a few of the most common questions that our lawyers are asked at our firm. They are very good questions to say the least. It’s entirely understandable when an inncocent, injured accident victim would want to know when their case will close and when they will receive compensation for their injuries. Living with a looming legal case over your head; having to worry about surveillance, medical appointments with insurance doctors; attending at discovery; attending at Court is all very worrying and taxing to one’s psyche.

For you and the insurance company, a closed file is a good file. And for innocent accident victims, settling their case helps bring a sense of closure and finality to the case; so that they can close that chapter of their lives; and move on the next. Our lawyers often see a catharsis and sense of relief; light a large weight/burden is being taken off a client’s shoulders once a case is closed and settled.

So, if there are so many positive elements to closing or settling one’s file; then WHY DOES IT TAKE SO DARN LONG TO DO SO?!?!?!
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Personal Injury Law and insurance claims handling practices have trends.

Just like we see trends for runway fashion, or trends on a celebrity packed red carpet; we see trends for accident law. What’s hip, sexy, or cool for one insurer, or for one judge on a case, will likely apply to the next insurer or judge. It’s a copy cat industry.

Now law isn’t as trivial or fickle as the world of fashion. It takes judges to rule on the law. It takes politicians to create law. It takes people to elect those politicians who make the law. All it takes is one fashion designer to create the next “big hit“.

Other lawyers who don’t practice personal injury law want to know what’s new, and what’s changed with Ontario’s car accident law. Let me assure that you LOTS has changed in the last few months alone. Leave it up to our law firm to keep you up to date with those “hottest trends“.

Did you ever think that personal injury law could be so cool and hip? Me neither.
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Many of our clients cannot return to work after serious accidents.

The form of accident is irrelevant. It doesn’t matter if your accident was caused by bike, car, pedestrian knock down, boat, fall or otherwise.

It doesn’t matter if your injury is catastrophic, is a brain injury, spinal cord injury, ankle fracture, chronic pain, psychological injury or any of the above.

The purpose of this Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog Post is to discuss and examine what you can do for money when you cannot return to work on account of your accident related impairments.

Firstly, it’s important to better understand how the Courts and how insurers quantify income loss claims. Many clients tell me that they’re high income earners, like having high, CEO style six figure salaries with benefits packages. Then, when we request their tax returns, they show little to no income. Go figure.

Courts require evidence of your income loss claim. The best evidence to prove income loss is what’s reported on your tax returns. In some cases, this is the only evidence that matters. In fact, if you should know that whatever you don’t report, you cannot claim. That means if you work at a cash business, and you deliberately conceal earned cash income on your tax returns without reporting it to revenue Canada, the Courts will not re-reimburse you for that income loss (save in exceptional circumstances).ankle.jpg

Basically, you cannot have the tax benefit and NOT report income in a cash business, and later seek to claim that money from an insurer as reportable income later on as your case develops. It doesn’t work that way. The law doesn’t let you suck and blow at the same time. In fact, the laws of physics don’t allow you to suck and blow at the same time. Go ahead. Try it.
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Our office’s Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog has been a huge success at educating the general public about how car insurance works, how the Courts work with respect to personal injury claims, and all sort of other helpful information for accident victims, disability claimants and their families.

Our law firm prides itself on using easy to understand language to get the message across. We know that not everybody is comfortable reading hard to understand legal terms or “legalese” as we call it.

This has been a big week for car insurance law in Ontario. So much of the law involves politics. Believe it or not, politicians through our government create the laws we live by.

We vote for politicians, who in turn, have the power to make, break, or change laws. We often write about politics in the Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog because decisions made at Queens Park have a major impact on personal injury law.

A few months ago, the Provincial Government introduced some radical changes to the Insurance Act. This is the piece of legislation which deals directly with how car accident law, and accident benefit law works. The changes were brought in very quickly, without any prior notice or debate. They were just passed through without the general public really knowing. You can read our previous blog post here posted on December 18, 2013.
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Ontario’s Chief Justice, Annemarie Bonkalo recently signed an order approving the fine for distracted driving to increase from $155 to $280 effective March 18, 2014.

Want a copy of the Judicial Order? Here you go. Short, sweet and to the point.

This fine increase for distracted driving in Ontario has made provincial and national headlines. I really don’t know why as I think the fine being set so low is an embarrassment and an insult to the families and accident victims of distracted drivers.

Presently, the fine for distracted driving is just $155. That’s it. Minimum wage in Ontario just went up to $11/hr. That’s under two days of work over a 7.5 hour work day to pay off a distracted driving penalty for almost killing somebody or rendering them a quadriplegic.

So, what’s the big deal and why be so hard on distracted drivers? I mean, everybody seems to do it. It’s just a phone call, a quick text or a simple email; right? I’ve seen a Kardashian send out a VINE Video while driving, so it’s gotta be cool to do it!

Distracted driving is just as bad as dunk driving. Yes, I made the comparison. Shocked? Bold words, I know. But, our law firm sees the realities of distracted driving every day. To give you evidence of how serious the problem is, the US Government has its own OFFICIAL WEBSITE DEVOTED TO THE DANGERS OF DISTRACTED DRIVING. If you didn’t take the problem seriously before, maybe you will now that Barack Obama, the world’s most powerful world leader, got his own country to design a website and set up an agency devoted to increasing awareness.
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