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Privacy is all the rage these days. It’s a very “chic” topic amongst lawyers, bureaucrats and politicians alike.

Don’t want to disclose a document? Tell the other side that you have privacy concerns. Lawyers will say that the document is privileged. Then the lawyers can wait a year to duke it out in Court before a Judge.

Government office doesn’t want to disclose a document to a prodding newsie? Privacy.

In personal injury cases, we lawyers rely on police officers and government offices to get critical source data to help build, and better establish our clients’ cases. In order to get to the bottom of the accident, we need to carefully examine to Motor Vehicle Accident Report, Photographs, Witness Statements, Accident Reconstruction Reports, Audio Tapes, Video Tapes and any hand written polices officers notes. Without this information, it would be very difficult, if not impossible for lawyers to make a case in your favour; better yet even understand who the at-fault party is and how the accident happened.
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You slip and fall. Better yet, another person hits you really hard and you sustain some serious injuries.

You retain a lawyer.

You sue.

You go to Court. You win a Court..Hooray! The judge awards you $150,000 for a combination of your pain and suffering, loss of income, and future care costs. Sounds like a pretty sweet award; doesn’t it.

Now, what’s next? Just because you get a judgment doesn’t mean that a great big cheque is magically going to appear out of nowhere.
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And now a letter from the Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog Newsbag. It’s from James in London, Ontario. James asks:

“Hey Goldfinger. Love the Blog. Long time reader, first time inquirer. I gotta know your take on the Zimmerman case. Not guilty? Also, do you think the Toronto Blue Jays are gonna make the World Series? Let me know.”

Thanks for your email James.

The George Zimmerman trial had legs. It was followed by all major news outlets. Even though the trial took place miles and miles away, it was headline news here in Ontario. The case had all sorts of undertones: race, human rights, the right to bear arms, the right to self defence, age, profiling, community safety, intent to harm vs. intent to protect.
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We had a few inquiries this week from concered parents who have their kids in daycare. The parents were concerned after a toddler unexpectedly died at an unlicensed daycare in the City of Vaughan, just north of Toronto.

If you haven’t read about the story, here’s a great article from the Toronto Star. The article shows a photo of the daycare; which, for all intents and purposes appears to be an ordinary, single family detatched suburban home.

Investigations have yet to reveal the cause of the child’s death. We don’t know if the child died on account of poor supervision, or on account of natural and sudden causes or otherwise. Either way, it’s a tragic story which has raised a lot of concern from the community and the rest of the province of Ontario.
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This weekend I watched the re-airing of a CTV W5 special on police officers in major Canadian cities such as Toronto, London and Peterborough supposedly having quotas to hand out traffic tickets. No chief of police admitted that their force had quotas for their officers to hand out tickets. But, the chief of police from a large city on the West Coast put it like this. If an officer works a 10 hour shift, and doesn’t hand out any tickets, you know that something is wrong, or that officer isn’t properly doing their job.

One of the most interesting points of the broadcast was that traffic tickets were a major form of revenue for a City. And the more money which a City or Municipality raises via ticketing, the more money it will presumably have to spend for police resources. Or, conversely, the less likely that city or municipality will look at cutting police services because it’s a major income generator via ticketing. Here is a link to that CTV W5 story if you’re interested.

What upset motorists and the general public was that such a large degree of resources was being allocated towards ticketing, and not towards preventing violent crime, organized crime or drugs.
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I want my Court date NOW.

I want to my trial NOW.

I want my case settled NOW.

I want justice NOW.

But I don’t want to pay a dime to my lawyer. Or, I’ve paid my lawyer lots of money, but I haven’t seen my case progress whatsoever and I want to see some results already!

These are common demands of litigants in Ontario’s civil justice system. Such demands don’t only come out of car accident, brain injury, or motorcycle crash cases. All litigation lawyers see such demands from their clients in a wide array of civil disputes. Patience, persistence, a good contingency fee lawyer or very deep pockets have now become hallmarks of our legal system.

Our Courts are slow. Procedures are long and drawn out. Discoveries take years to schedule. Good luck getting a trial date in Toronto. Don’t believe me? Read it for your self directly from a Judge sitting right here in the Toronto Superior Court of Justice.
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Let me preface this Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog Post by stating that I have nothing against insurance adjusters. Really. I don’t. It’s a job. The work is steady. The hours are probably ok. The so called “work-life” balance is there. Pay is good. Benefits gotta be good if you’re working for an insurer.

We get calls at our office from people who have recently been involved in all sorts of accidents. Car crashes, motorcycle accidents, dog bites, slip and falls. You name it. Our law firm hears about it.

People call us in a panic. Sometimes it’s because their lives have been traumatized on account of the accident. Sometimes it’s because they’re in shock. But most times it’s because they fell overwhelmed at what their next step is. The most common question we get is “WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO NEXT!?!?!?!“.
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I came across an interesting set of articles in today’s National Post and Globe & Mail. In Toronto’s Parkdale Community, City Council is proposing a cap on the amount of bars and restaurants in the area. Local residents are complaining of the noise, the late night crowds which the bars and restaurants attract, and don’t like that local businesses like drug stores and pharmacies are being pushed out by more trendy resto-lounges etc.

Residents are also complaing that they were once able to walk outside and buy a loaf of bread or a lightbulb at the local corner store. Now, with the influx of all of the bars and restaurants, they have to walk further, bike or….DRIVE! YIKES.

If any of you remembers what Parkdale was like some 10 or 20+ years ago, it wasn’t pretty. I’m just glad to see that the neighbourhood is gentrifying and people are actually flocking to the area with money to spend in local community (in the right legal way, not the underground illegal way). Here are links to those articles.
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Want to know what an accident benefit adjuster’s gotta do to properly handle your case car accident case? Check out the below Arbitration Appeal review of Delegate Lawrence Blackman of the Financial Services Commission on Ontario in Christopher Hoang v. The Personal Insurance Company of Canada.

Facts:

The Insured, Christropher Hoang was born on March 7, 1998. When he was just 6 years old, he was hit by a car. His right ankle was pinned under a wheel, and he lost consciousness. His Glascow Coma Scale reading was 3 out of 15; which is the lowest GCS score you can get while living. Think of being totally out of it on the ground, without responding to noise, movement, touch or any other sense. That was Mr. Hoang. He had to be resuscitated at the scene of the accident. He’s lucky to be alive.

Chris’ accident benefits were provided to him by The Personal Insurance Company. You, or a loved one might be insured by The Personal. Many clients at Goldfinger Law are insured by them. They’re a rather large insurer. You should know that The Personal is a subsidiary of Desjardins Insurance.
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What’s new in the world of Long Term Disability Law in Ontario? Well, I’m glad you’ve asked.

Not to sound like an insurance salesman, but have you even given any thought to what you would do if you found yourself in the terrible position of being so sick, or so injured that you can no longer work?

Canada Pension Plan Disability Benefits only cover so much. ODSP payments are also very limited. Your EI will expire after around 8 weeks or so. Cashing in RRSPs is a tough pill to swallow.

That’s were Short Term and Long Term Disability Insurance comes in. Critical Illness Insurance may also apply.

At our law firm, we see things when the bad stuff hits the fan so to say. When things go wrong recovering STD/LTD benefits, people call us. We see lots of crazy, and not so crazy stuff. The purpose of this Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog post is to give you a better understanding of what Courts are saying with respect to handling these claims, along with the changes we are seeing on behalf of insurers in the industry. Some of the big names which provide LTD and STD insurance are Manulife, Great West Life, SunLife, Industrial Alliance, Desjardins, Canada Life, SSQ and Standard Life.
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