Published on:

By

On December 5, 2017, Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa along with Attorney General Yasir Naqvi announced another set of major reforms to car insurance in Ontario. This set of reforms has a grandiose name, much like all of the other reforms which have been introduced in the 14+ years of Wynne rule in Ontario.

The “Fair Auto Insurance Plan” is intended to lower premiums in Ontario, and reduce fraud. Both sound like great things. Haven’t we been trying to reduce premiums over the past 30+ years? In that time period, have your premiums gone down? Have the premiums of your neighbours, friends, family members or loved ones even gone down in the past 5 years? Likely not according to our very informal survey of asking real people if their premiums have gone down.

The Fair Auto Insurance Plan is based on the recommendations from the Marshall Report, created by former head of the WSIB David Marshall. The Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog covered the Marshall Report entitled Fair Accident Benefits, Fairly Delivered in a previous entry here. If you haven’t read up on the Marshall Report, I suggest that you do if you want to better understand what the Liberal Government is hoping to accomplish.

Continue reading →

Published on:

By

If you’ve been hurt or injured in a car accident, you are entitled to accident benefits from your own car insurer. These accident benefits are NOT damages for pain and suffering; nor are they compensation intended to make you whole for your attendant care, income loss, housekeeping claim, or loss of guidance, care and companionship with immediate family members.

Accident benefits are intended to help the injured accident victim get better following a car accident. They are also intended to supplement, to some form, for their income loss (up to $400/week) and attendant care (up to $3,000/month for non-catastrophic claims, and up to $6,000/month for catastrophic claims).

The problem lies herein. The insurance company supplying those accident benefits is typically your own car insurer; even though you or your insurer may have not even caused the car accident (hence the term no-fault benefits). But the accident benefit insurer gets to act as Judge, Jury and Executioner all in the same breath when determining which accident benefits they will pay, and which accident benefits they won’t pay.

If an insurer paid our on each and every claim, without contesting or opposing a treatment plan, they would not be nearly as profitable as they are today. Insurance companies are publicly traded corporations. Profits not only matter, but matter each and every quarter to ensure that the stock price increases for their share holders. Check the TSX for your favourite car insurers, which include but aren’t limited to Intact Insurance IFC.TO; Co-Operators General Insurance Company CCS-C; and Aviva PLC to name a few. The more money which insurers pay out to accident victims, the less money they get to retain in profit. That ultimately hurts their bottom line, and their share performance struggles on public stock exchanges.

Continue reading →

Published on:

By

Our law firm handles many short term disability, and long term disability cases against large insurance companies. These insurers include but aren’t limited to: Manulife, Sun Life, Great West Life, Industrial Alliance, SSQ, Desjardins, Co-Operators, RBC Insurance, La Capitale, and BMO Insurance just to name a few.

It should be noted that not every insurer sells/provides Long Term Disability insurance. Some do, and some don’t.  And not every insurance company handles claims in the same way. Insurers may appear similar, and certainly do similar things; but that doesn’t mean that they are the same.

If you’re reading this instalment of the Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog, you may be contemplating making a claim for Long Term Disability Benefits, and don’t know where to start, what to do, what questions to ask, what to say (or not say) so that you don’t mess up your Long Term Disability Claim.

Continue reading →

Published on:

By

We get a lot of questions from the readers of the Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog. Some serious. Some silly. This will be a mailbag installment of our blog whereby personal injury lawyer Brian Goldfinger will respond to those questions.

Please note that answers to your questions to do constitute a solicitor-client relationship, nor are they intended to form a full legal opinion as we have only received a small sample size of your case/question. The answers are general in nature, and are not intended to be former legal advice. For proper legal advice, consult with, and retain your own personal injury lawyer who will have a full understanding of your case. Every personal injury case is fact driven, and fact specific. Your case will likely have its own unique facts which will drive it in its own direction, different from other cases and different from the answers to questions below.

If you have questions for the mailbag section of the Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog, please tweet them to @Goldfingerlaw or email them to info@goldfingerlaw.com and reference “Blog MailBag” in the subject line. Please mention your name, and the City/Town where you reside, so we can refer to it in future posts.

Thank you in advance for your questions and queries. Funny ones certainly make us smile!

Continue reading →

Published on:

By

The unfortunate realities of Long Term Disability Claims is that in order to be on claim, you can’t be working. If you’re not working, that means that you’re not earning an income.

Whether you live in a big city like Toronto, a medium city like London, or on the outskirts of Peterborough, love alone won’t pay your rent, mortgage, pay for the food for your family, or pay the heating or hydro bills.

People need money to survive, and money doesn’t grow on trees. People need to go out and earn money by working.

But what if their doctors told them that they cannot work?

What if living on a pension, on OW, ODSP, or CPP Disability isn’t enough?

At Goldfinger Injury Lawyers, we understand that making ends meet, even for able bodied people is hard enough. Multiply that degree of difficulty times 5 if you’re disabled. Increase that degree of difficulty if an insurer like Manulife, Great West Life, Sun Life, SSQ, RBC, Industrial Alliance or Co-Operators has denied your Long Term Disability Claim.

The stress of having a Long Term Disability Claim denied in the first place is hard enough. Let alone the devastation of the denial itself. Compound to that the financial hardship that disabled claimant are under; it’s unconscionable.

Continue reading →

Published on:

By

An Ontario MPP’s private member’s bill proposed that pedestrians not paying attention to where or how they are walking, could be fined up to $50 for distracted walking.

It’s called the “Phones Down, Heads Up Act” and was tabled by Toronto MPP Yves Baker of Etobicoke Centre.

Baker’s bill would ban people from looking at their phones or electronic devices when crossing roads, with an initial $50 fine for the first offence, $75 for the second and up to $125 for the third. Exceptions would include pedestrians making an emergency call or if they began speaking on the phone before stepping into the crosswalk (this would be difficult to prove).

In Ontario, the OPP attributed 65 deaths in 2016 to distracted driving, which is more than impaired driving, speeding or not wearing a seat belt. While this is not distracted walking, it’s certainly along the same lines. In 2016, 42 pedestrians were killed on Toronto’s streets, the most since 2002.

Here are Goldfinger Injury Lawyers, we applaud the “Phones Down, Heads Up Act” as too often, we see people taking those so called “zombie walks” without paying attention to where they are going, or what they’re doing.

But, we have a lot of questions about the new Act, which are explored in greater detail below.

Please keep in mind that distracted walking does not only involve accidents involving pedestrians, and cars, bikes or other motorized vehicles.

People walk in to pot holes or cracks or lose their footing on account of not paying attention to where they are walking .

People walk in to lamp posts, doors, walls, guard rails, other pedestrians, parked cars and fall down stairs because they are not paying attention to where they are walking.

People slip on ice or other slick surfaces because they aren’t paying attention to where they’re walking.

You have all seen the YouTube clips before of ridiculous distracted walking incidents. Our personal injury lawyers field some of those calls.

Continue reading →

Published on:

By

Your personal injury lawyer may have shared the term “Examination for Discovery” with you when describing the next step in your case.

This may be the first time you’ve heard this legal term.

Understanding what it means to participate in an Examination for Discovery, and why a discovery is important for your personal injury case, will help you better understand and make you feel more comfortable with your case. An understanding and more comfortable client will perform better when it matters most.

After reading this Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog Post you may likely still be nervous for an upcoming Examination for Discovery.

Rest assured; these feelings are NORMAL! It’s perfectly normal to get nervous or anxious to participate in a discovery if you’ve never done one before. Even if you have participated in one, you never know what to expect.

Unless you’re a lawyer who has done hundreds or thousands of Examinations for Discovery, you will likely have a hard time sleeping the eve of discovery on account of nerves. Use those nerves to your advantage to keep you sharp and alert throughout the discovery process instead of having those nerves work against you.

Continue reading →

Published on:

By

To structure, or not to structure? That is the question for the purpose of this entry in the Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog. Sometimes, whether to enter in to a structured settlement is not an option; rather a requirement. Other time, you may have a decision to structure or not.

WHAT IS A STRUCTURED SETTLEMENT?

A structured settlement is a negotiated financial arrangement whereby an injured accident victim agrees to accept a usually large lump sum of money in the form of a settlement from a personal injury claim. That lump sum is then placed in to an interest bearing financial instrument (called a structure) which gets paid out in periodic payments over a long period of time to the Plaintiff.

Instead of receiving one large lump sum at one time, the Plaintiff instead receives periodic payments (usually every month) set over a schedule which normally lasts a life time.

The monthly payments, administration and maintenance of the structure are not charged to the person receiving the structure, unless otherwise specified.

Continue reading →

Published on:

By

Attendant care benefits.

What are they?

How do they work?

How do I get compensated? For how much and for how long?

These are all important and common questions after a serious car accident in Ontario.

The law surrounding attendant care benefits has changed significantly since they were conceived under the Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule (SABS) and Insurance Act. For whatever reason, insurers and the government like to tinker with attendant care benefits thereby changing the laws on what seems to be an annual basis.

Continue reading →

Published on:

By

Car accident cases in Ontario should be simple.

The premise of one car, hitting another car by mistake or negligence; and thereby causing damages/injuries to another party ought to be basic tort law.

Unfortunately in Ontario, this couldn’t be further from the truth. The Ontario Government, at the behest of large insurers has created a system whereby the rights of people are not equal to the rights of large insurance companies. This system has become very complicated.

The law has been crafted in such a way as to minimize the exposure/risk for insurers to boost their profits, at the expense of everyday people like you and me.

I have never met an individual unaffiliated with car insurance industry (doctor, therapist, adjuster, lobbyist, lawyer, insurance company employee/agent) who has lobbied for changes to accident benefits or the Insurance Act. Yet, major changes to accident benefits and the Insurance Act happen on a near annual basis.

The election issue of lowering car insurance premiums was admitted by Premier Wynne to be a “stretch goal“. But reforms to the accident benefit system, and how tort claims proceed through the Courts was not a election issue. Yet these items are constantly being tinkered with at the expense of innocent accident victims to bolster insurer profits.

Continue reading →

OTLA American Association for Justice Lexpert Ranked Lawyer
Contact Information
Toronto Office
167 Sheppard Ave W
Toronto, ON M2N 1M9
Phone: (416) 730-1777 Toll Free: (877) 730-1777 Fax: (416) 730-0955
London Meeting Office
341 Talbot St
London, ON N6A 2R5
Toll Free: (877) 730-1777
Peterborough Meeting Office
420 George St N #313
Peterborough, ON K9H 3R5
Toll Free: (877) 730-1777
Kitchener Meeting Office
290 King St E
Kitchener, ON N2G 2L3
Toll Free: (877) 730-1777
Owen Sound Meeting Office
1051 2nd Ave E
Owen Sound, ON N4K 2H8
Toll Free: (877) 730-1777

Past results are not indicative of future results.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Please do not include any confidential or sensitive information in a contact form, text message, or voicemail. The contact form sends information by non-encrypted email, which is not secure. Submitting a contact form, sending a text message, making a phone call, or leaving a voicemail does not create an attorney-client relationship.

Copyright © 2025, Goldfinger Law
JUSTIA Law Firm Blog Design