Winter Accidnents

Published on: February 8, 2023

Springtime in February?!? Is early February the new Patio Season? Enjoy Responsibly.

February is traditionally a bitter cold month in Ontario. When I say bitter cold, I mean bitter cold. It’s on record as the second coldest month of the year, trailing only January by around a degree or so. February is dark, windy, cold, icy and snowy. It’s known to be depressing, grey and overall, a very blah month. I think everyone is glad that February is the shortest month, because the February weather in Ontario is not all that pleasant.

So, when we see weather above the freezing mark, getting up to 6 or 7 degrees; with sunshine, all we can do is smile! It’s like it’s springtime in February. Getting up to 6 or 7 degrees in February would be a record for warmest dates recorded.

But with the warm weather at such a early time, and so quick after a month or two of steady below zero temperatures, we need to be careful. The snow and ice is melting. This impacts the streets on which we drive, the walkways where we walk, the water levels of our rivers and streams, and those not so frozen lakes where we may be accustomed to ice fish or snowmobile around this time of year.

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Published on: November 30, 2022

Behind the Scenes of a Winter Slip and Fall Case

By Goldfinger Injury Lawyers

Winter time means slip and fall accidents on account of snow, ice, sleet a slush.

These slip and fall cases can cause serious injuries to innocent visitors to public (or private) spaces.

Think of a parking lot at a school, university, grocery store, or a shopping mall that isn’t properly plowed, sanded or salted. Or perhaps a local gas station that hasn’t been maintained after some serious winter weather.

After a Plaintiff slips, falls, get hurt; begins the rehab process; what happens next? What happens behind the scenes of such a case.

With years of dedicated assistance to serving innocent accident victims across Ontario, Goldfinger Injury Lawyers has seen countless of these cases. While no two cases are exactly alike; they do share a lot of commonalities. Each case is determined on its own set of facts. Many cases can be similar, but NOT the same.

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Published on: November 22, 2022

Winter Means that it’s Slip and Fall Season: Be Careful

By Goldfinger Injury Lawyers

Cold weather!

Snow!

Ice!

Yikes!

Winter means that you are either really excited because you happen to be a winter sports enthusiast (most people who love the winter also ski, snowshoe, play hockey and can’t get enough of the cold weather) or you are dreading what’s yet to come.

Whether or not you like, or dislike the winter weather doesn’t matter. But what does matter is that you stay safe for when the sidewalks, walk ways, stairs and entrances get wet, slushy, icy and slippery.

Around this time of year, our lawyers see an increase in client calls relating to slip and fall cases dealing with icy or slippery surfaces.

There is a very good reason for this aside from the obvious that it’s cold, snowy and can be icy outside. The reality is that the first winter storm or frost can catch us off guard. We aren’t quite ready for it. All of our “snow stuff“, such as winter boots, winter coats, hats and gloves were all packed away at the end of last winter, and have yet to be unpacked for the upcoming cold weather season.

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Published on: January 2, 2020

Slip and Fall Cases in Ontario

By Goldfinger Injury Lawyers

It’s that time of year. Slip and Fall season is upon us in Ontario.

Before we get in too deep on this edition of the Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog, all of us here at Goldfinger Injury Lawyers would like to thank our readership for their support over this past year. We appreciate your positive and constructive feedback. In 2020, we hope to bring you more interesting to read legal content so that you can better understand the world of personal injury and disability law in Ontario. If there are any topics which you would like covered that we have yet to touch upon, send us an email to info@goldfingerlaw.com with subject title “Blog” and we will do our best to accommodate your request. You can always dig in to our archives on the Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog page.

This week’s topic will cover slip and trip and falls. We always notice a spike in these sort of calls around this time of year. This year is no exception with the steady freeze, thaw, freeze, thaw weather we’ve had across the province, it’s kept everyone on their toes so to speak.

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Published on: March 13, 2019

These Boots are Made for Walking: Brian Goldfinger on Slip and Fall Cases in Ontario

By Goldfinger Injury Lawyers

This deep freeze, thaw, cold, warm, snow, rain, back to snow, then to ice weather cycle we have seen across Ontario this winter hasn’t been good for anyone. We’re not sure if it’s snowing, raining, or ice is falling from the sky.

All of the fluctuations in temperature have lead to slippery walking conditions on sidewalks, parking lots, entrance ways, walk ways and other paths.

Over the past week, personal injury lawyer Brian Goldfinger has been asked for comment by the CBC, CityTV and quoted by Canadian Underwrite Magazine for commentary from a knowledgable lawyer regarding slip and fall cases in Ontario. You can find links to these articles here:

Canadians nurse winter wounds as cities grapple with icy sidewalks

Latest Canadian statistics on slips and falls on ice

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/sidewalk-clearing-law-london-ontario-1.5046917

Over the months of February and well in to the beginning of March 2019, our law firm has seen a spike from the usual norm with respect to winter slip and fall cases resulting in serious injury. Injuries like broken ankles, broken wrists, broken arms, broken hips; even fractured skulls. We have been seeing some pretty significant injury cases of late.

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Published on: January 23, 2019

Police Response to winter weather car accidents across Ontario

By Goldfinger Injury Lawyers

A few recent headlines caught my attention over the past 48 hours:

From Toronto/the GTA:

There were 350 Car Accidents in the past 24 hours in the Toronto area due to snowy and slippery conditions. OPP responded to 350 car accidents in the GTA due to slippery weather conditions in the past 24 hours.

From Kitchener/Waterloo:

Police to respond to fewer collisions. Under a new partnership with Accident Support Services Ltd., police will decide if they will attend collisions depending on the severity of the crash, injuries, and whether the collision is suspicious.

What does this mean? It means that right now, there are a lot of accidents happening on roads across Ontario on account of winter weather and slippery conditions.

It also means that police will respond to fewer of those car accidents regardless of the conditions. Police can arbitrarily tell callers that if there doesn’t appear to be any injuries, and/or if the collision does not appear to be severe, that they won’t attend on the scene to investigate. This has significant consequences for a personal injury case. Here’s why.

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Published on: November 9, 2018

Slip and Fall Accidents in Ontario: Do’s and Don’ts

By Goldfinger Injury Lawyers

I looked outside my window today and saw SNOW! Yuck. That means it’s slip and fall season in Ontario. A large proportion of the personal injury cases at Goldfinger Injury Lawyers are slip and fall cases. A large proportion of those slip and fall cases arise from slip and falls on snowey/icey/slippery surfaces caused by lack of, or improper maintenance. In many of those cases there is no maintenance at all which adds significant exposure to the Defendant property owner.

Given that it’s slip and fall season in Ontario, the team at Goldfinger Injury Lawyers would like to keep you up to speed with some do’s and don’ts for your slip and fall case. On this list are some common misconceptions when it comes to handling these cases.

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