Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog
Everyone has a person in their lives who thinks that they know it all. I’ve met some very smart people in my life. But I’ve never met someone who knows everything, about everything. In fact, the smartest, most brilliant people I’ve met know exactly when they’re outside of their depth of understanding or knowledge. When that happens, they defer to the experts and surround themselves with people who are more knowledgeable than they are.
The concept of seeking out an expert for comment isn’t novel. It’s a practice that’s used in all sorts of fields.
We see developers engage in experts to help them build large construction projects. The developer will retain an architect, a structural engineer, a traffic engineer, an environmental engineer, an arborist, a planner, a lawyer and the list goes on, all to ensure that the development gets built to standard.
A professional sports team will hire a nutritionist, a psychologist, a strength and conditioning coach, specialist physicians, all to make sure that their team performs as best it can.
In a personal injury case, your lawyer will engage with, and retain experts to make sure that your case is optimized for success and is presented in the best way possible before a Judge and Jury should the matter proceed to trial.
Your personal injury lawyer alone sometimes isn’t enough to “win” a personal injury case. It takes an entire team to get the job done. Here are a few “experts” who your lawyer might engage with or retain in order to maximize the success of your case:
The Rehab Team
Not all treatment is covered by OHIP. In fact, a lot of rehab treatment isn’t covered. Some of the treatment will have to be paid out of pocket, or by a collateral or first party insurer. Occupational Therapy sounds great following a serious accident. But, guess what. It’s not covered in most situations outside of a hospital setting by OHIP. The same applies for physiotherapy, social work, psychological counselling, CBT, massage, chiro, driver retraining, PSW, nutritionist, RSW, speech language therapy, neuropsychological testing… All of this treatment will help an accident victim on their road to recovery, while at the same time, it also helps a Plaintiff illustrate his/her damages in a personal injury case. The Court and insurer might draw a negative inference if the Plaintiff is not receiving regular and sufficient care; either from within or outside of the OHIP system. Their logic is that if a Plaintiff is truly hurt, then s/he will be receiving regular care. If that same Plaintiff is not truly injured, then s/he won’t be receiving regular care and treatment. Whether that approach is right or not doesn’t matter. If a Plaintiff isn’t receiving regular care, it will be used as a tool against the Plaintiff in his/her personal injury case.
Liability Experts
Some accidents aren’t straight forward. Sometimes, liability is in dispute. It’s a he said vs. she said and there is no clear wrongdoer. When that happens your personal injury lawyer might engage with a engineer, or a human factors expert in order to investigate and report on how the accident happen and to comment on who’s to blame for the accident. There are all sorts of liability experts and engineers out there who can help. Slip and fall on a wet surface? There are experts for that. Car accident at a greenish/yellow light? There are experts who will conduct traffic studies and traffic light analysis studies to determine who was at fault. Gun accident? Product defect? Food poisoning? A rogue security guard or police officer gone bad? How about an expert to comment on whether or not a professional breached the standard of care (standard of care report). There are experts for those cases as well. You name the case; there’s a good chance that your personal injury lawyer will be able to find an expert for that. In Ontario, if you have a medical malpractice case, changes are your case isn’t going very far if you don’t have the right expert to comment on liability/the standard of care.
Damages Experts
Sometimes the parties aren’t fighting about liability. What they’re fighting about are the damages or the injuries themselves. The Plaintiff alleges that the injuries and the ensuring damages are large, and have a big impact on the Plaintiff’s life. The Defendant will argue the opposite, or will argue that the Plaintiff has not sustained any injury or damages whatsoever. In these scenarios, a personal injury lawyer will retain an expert who can comment on what injuries and damages were sustained as a direct result of the subject accident, and how those damages are having an impact on the Plaintiff’s life. The expert will be able to say what the diagnosis is, what the prognosis for recovery is, and hopefully be able to tie those injuries to the subject accident (causation). Some experts are able to specifically quantify the damages to the Plaintiff from the accident. Past and Future Care Cost Reports forecast what those damages are and tie a dollar figure to those claims. Accountants and Actuaries can prepare income loss reports, or can prepare reports as to how someone’s small business suffered (business valuation report).
Litigation Experts and Focus Groups
Your personal injury lawyer can run a focus group to see how you will perform, and be received at trial. This is akin to running a pretend mock trial to see how well a Plaintiff will stand up to scrutiny, and how well (or not well) his/her evidence will be received. Your personal injury lawyer can also retain graphic designers or an IT consultant for all of the slides, graphics and exhibits which will be presented during the course of your case or trial so that it’s easily digestible and accurate for a Judge, Jury and defence lawyer(s). Trials in 2026 lean heavily on technology and presenting evidence is a cogent and cohesive way which is easy for the trier of fact to grasp and then to revert back to over the course of the trial itself. A flashy and accurate presentation of the evidence can go a long way.
