Personal Injury Lawyer

Published on: April 15, 2022

Innocent Accident Victims Play Nice. Most Insurers Don’t.

The majority of my clients are first time litigants:

It’s their first time retaining a personal injury lawyer; or retaining a lawyer at all
It’s their first time suing
It’s their first experience with the legal system
It’s their first time getting really hurt and needing to do something about it from a legal perspective
It’s their first time getting denied by an insurance company
It’s their first time feeling gaslit by an insurance company
It’s their first time participating in sworn statements, an examination for discovery, medico-legal assessments, mediation, having surveillance conducted on them, Pre-Trial, Trial and all of the other things which go hand in hand with personal injury cases

The parties which my clients sue or seek benefits from are large and sophisticated insurance companies. This is not their first rodeo. They are well versed in the dark arts of litigation. Strategically defending lawsuits is what they do well.

Insurance companies know what they are up against. They are facing off against for the most part, unsophisticated accident victims who are hurt or injured. The Plaintiffs are new to litigation and all of the ups and downs which it presents. Insurance companies know how to say the right things because they have experience. Having their lawyers say “healing words” to appease a Plaintiff; or say all the right things to gloss over a terrible sequence of events is less expensive than paying out an award for damages.

An apology costs n0thing. Stating condolences for the loss of a loved one costs nothing as well.

But paying out of a claim costs the price of said claim.

There is a quantifiable economic difference between the two which insurance companies and their lawyers know all too well. Why pay out on a claim when you don’t have to? Why pay more on a case when you don’t have to? It makes financial sense. If an insurance company either liked your claim, or wanted to get you the compensation you deserve; you would have received that compensation by now.

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Published on: April 6, 2022

Do I have a personal injury case?

By Goldfinger Injury Lawyers

Do I have a personal injury case? You be the Judge.

Once upon a time there was woman who was walking in a public park. It was winter and cold and icy. In the middle of the park stood a large snow covered hill. There was no visible path up the hill because it was covered in snow and ice. The hill had been used by children for tobogganing, but there was nobody tobogganing on that particular day.

There were signs along the hill from the City/Municipality stating “Hill and Paths not maintained in the Winter. Use at your own risk“.

The hill was both high, steep, snow covered and slippery. But it was also very tempting and mysterious for the woman in the park who was standing at the foot of the giant hill. What could be on top of the hill? What could be on the other side of the hill? Am I strong enough to climb the hill and make it all the way to the top? Do you think that I would set a record for being the first person to climb the hill in the winter? If I climbed the hill on my own, would I win a prize? Perhaps I would be on the news for climbing this glorious hill….

So many questions, so little time; and such a tempting hill.

The woman could not resist. Her curiosity got he best of her and she proceeded to climb the hill. Slowly but surely, she summited to the top of the hill. But when near the top of the hill she lost her footing and twisted her ankle. She was not able to walk properly for days and needed some physiotherapy.

Now the woman calls a personal injury lawyer and shared her story of the giant hill in the public park. She wanted to sue the hill and sue the City/Municipality for not making the hill safe for people to climb in the winter. She wants to sue the manufacturer of her boots for not making the sturdy enough for the climb atop the hill.

It begs the question: Do I have a personal injury case?

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Published on: February 18, 2022

Ingredients matter for a successful personal injury case

By Goldfinger Injury Lawyers

A well respected personal injury mediator recently compared a successful mediation to baking. It takes great ingredients to bake a great cake. The same as it takes a lot of different pieces of evidence and factors to make for a successful case or mediation. Just as one ingredient cannot make a cake. One piece of evidence or factor cannot make for a great case or mediation.

I love that analogy on so many levels.

Firstly, I like great cake. Who doesn’t? Yum!

Second: he is absolutely right. It takes great a lot of evidence to make for a great case. As it takes the parties working in harmony to get to “Yes” during the mediation process. Getting the ingredients right is required to get the deal done.

Finally and most importantly; the analogy which the mediator used (comparing needing great ingredients to bake a great cake to a successful case or mediation) is simple and easy for anyone to understand. I’ve found that easy to understand and easy to relate to analogies work best with accident victims. All too frequently lawyers and other actors in the personal injury litigation system forget that Plaintiffs haven’t done this sort of thing before.

In all likelihood it’s their first time hiring a litigation lawyer; it’s their first time suing; it’s their first time being exposed to the underbelly of personal injury litigation in Ontario; it’s their first time hearing legal terms that lawyers throw around.

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Published on: December 6, 2021

Downtown can be difficult for personal injury clients

By Goldfinger Injury Lawyers

When most people think about lawyers, they think about fancy offices, fancy suits, and very expensive hourly rates. It can all be very intimidating.

When I first started practicing law, I worked in the downtown Toronto core on Bay Street. Bay Street is synonymous with big banks, big finance and the big law firms which represent those large institutions.

What was really odd was that the law firm I used to practice act acted for neither the large banks, or large commercial entities. We acted for seriously injured and disabled people; many of whom did not live in the City of Toronto and if they did rarely ventured into the downtown core. Having our clients come into the office was a chore. They were scared of venturing to downtown Toronto; even if it was to meet with their own personal injury lawyer.

The law firm was accessible on the subway or streetcar, but there was no easily accessible parking which didn’t require a 5+ minute walk through an underground maze (The Path System). And once you got off the TTC, people often got lost. Navagating the elevator bank was also an experience in and of itself. Odd floors servicing certain levels on one side; even floors servicing other levels on another side. If you weren’t there everyday, or weren’t familiar with all of the commotion; it was an intimidating and scary sight.

Keep in mind that the bulk of our law firm’s work at that time was devoted to Plaintiff side personal injury law. Our clients had very real and very visible disabilities (wheelchairs, walkers, crutches, canes, casts) or invisible disabilities (anxiety, depression, suicidal ideations, chronic pain). Things weren’t easy for our clients simply getting to our law firm and that didn’t sit right with me. Seeing your own personal injury lawyer shouldn’t be a chore or an anxiety inducing event.

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Published on: October 25, 2021

Ready for Halloween Trick or Treating? Safety tips from a Personal Injury Lawyer

By Goldfinger Injury Lawyers

Halloween Trick Or Treating is fun, family friendly and exciting.

But when you take a step back and really examine what Halloween Trick or Treating really entails, it would make any parent cringe.

Knocking on the doors of strangers? Check.

Accepting candies from strangers? Check.

Running door to door at night in poorly visible costumes (while wearing masks with poor visibility)? Check.

All this while on a sugar high adrenaline rush fueled by chocolate and candy? Yup!

On any other night, you would strictly forbid your children from doing any of the above. But on Halloween, it’s all good.

Halloween should be fun, kinda spooky and totally safe. So let’s keep it that way.

The purpose of this year’s Halloween instalment of the Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog is to impart you the parents with some reminders and safety tips. Most of these tips you may already know; or may have forgotten. Nonetheless, it’s a good reminder or tool to keep your kids safe over Halloween.

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Published on: April 17, 2019

What NOT TO DO when hiring a personal injury lawyer (Ontario)

By Goldfinger Injury Lawyers

Brian Goldfinger has been practising law long enough to have seen some very good practices from personal injury lawyers in Ontario; along with some very bad practices from personal injury lawyers in Ontario.

When bad things happen to people; they often turn to Brian Goldfinger to right the ship and turn things around.

In this instalment of the Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog, we pick Brian Goldfinger’s mind to find out some not so good stories from clients he has seen in the past in terms of what not to do when retaining a personal injury lawyer in Ontario.

Meet with your personal injury lawyer: All too often, Brian Goldfinger has been approached by prospective clients with personal injury cases who are being handled by other personal injury lawyers or paralegals. When Brian asks them who their lawyer is; the client cannot say. When asked whether or not they have met with a personal injury lawyer, spoken to one, or corresponded with one in relation to their case, often the answer is a firm “no”. When pressed further, the truth comes out that they never met a personal injury lawyer before. Instead, they met with a non lawyer who called themselves a “consultant” or a “client care specialist”, or some other fancy non-legal title. These people are not personal injury lawyers. They are people who give themselves fancy titles. These people may act as agents or servants or employees for the law firm they work for or represent whose sole job is to run around the City or Province and get clients and sign up clients. Never meeting with or speaking with your personal injury lawyer from the start is recipe for disaster. When you hire a real estate agent, do you meet with that agent or do you meet with his/her agent or secretary? When you need to get surgery, do you meet with the surgeon ahead of time to discuss the procedure, or do you meet with the surgeon’s agent? The same applies when it comes to your personal injury lawyer. Know who you’re hiring.

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