Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog
There are so many tall tales in personal injury law. Things which you hear from your friends, family, therapists, neighbours, acquaintances, or random people in your community are so far off from the reality of what actually happens behind the scenes, and the work involved in a personal injury case.
The only people who really know what happens, and how things happened are the lawyers themselves.
There are a lot of reasons for this.
For starters, personal injury cases deal with new litigants, who are unfamiliar with personal injury cases, or how the law works. This is completely normal as for the majority of clients, it’s their first time hiring a personal injury lawyer, or a lawyer all together. When you are new to litigation, it’s hard to understand how things get done. It’s perfectly ok to be a first time litigant. In fact, if you’re a multiple time litigant for a personal injury case, it will give your lawyer cause for concern. You must be terribly unlucky, finding yourself repeatedly in the wrong place, at the wrong time. You will also likely have an extensive pre-accident history which will invariably come up in your personal injury case.
Contrast a personal injury case involving a first time litigant, with a commercial litigation matter. The commercial litigation matter will likely involve sophisticated businesses who are making a calculated decision to fight the claim in Court. It’s likely not the first time one of these commercial litigants have needed to fight their battles in Court. They have lawyers, and money set aside to fight legal claims. Litigation can be a large part of a business strategy.
This approach is completely different from that of an injured accident victim in a personal injury case who has never thought of the prospect of being in Court to seek compensation for their injuries. Yet, the injured accident victim has to go against an large, deep pocketed insurance company who uses the same strategies as you might see from sophisticated commercial litigants to personal injury claims. They’re able to use such tactics because they are a commercial litigant themselves whose business model revolves around fighting claims in Court. You can now better appreciate how different the litigants to personal injury cases are (Plaintiff vs. Large Insurer Defendant).
What happens behind the scenes of a personal injury case is hard for a first time litigant (or any litigant without experience in personal injury) to understand. Getting a law degree, or taking classes in civil litigation is certainly a good start, but not everyone has the time or means to do that. It can take many years for even lawyers to get the hang of it! The laws and regulations under Ontario’s No Fault System of Accident Benefits are dense and complex. This is why retaining an experienced personal injury lawyer who dedicates their practice to personal injury cases is a great start to getting the compensation which you deserve for your case.
A good place to understanding how these cases work is to think of your case like going to a restaurant. You might not see all of the work that goes in behind the scenes to getting you that meal at your table. The restaurant has to purchase your food/ingredients; prepare a menu; set the table; make sure that the front of the house is in order; and prepare your meal. You don’t see, or might not understand all of that work to getting that meal to your table. But, after remaining patient, your meal will be ready and will arrive at your table; hopefully at the right temperature and delicious.
In many cases, the more that you focus on the ins and outs along with the minor details of the personal injury case, the more frustrated that you will get. The reason for that is because the law, in general, is VERY FRUSTRATING. There’s a lot of red tape (laws) which can’t be cut. The laws are there for a reason and need to be followed. Your case won’t work like you see on television; where the opposing lawyer waltzes in to another lawyer’s office and cuts a deal. That only happens on television and not in real life. I can recall watching the show “Suits“, where lawyers from other law firms would constantly appear in the opposing lawyer’s offices unannounced to make offers, threats, or try to make deals. Don’t get me wrong; this made for great television; but it did not reflect the reality of lawyers daily lives or practices. It was purely fantasy; which is entirely ok. But, it’s not ok to think that cases work like this in everyday life. This is why it’s not ok to believe everything you hear from your friends or family about how their cases went down, or how cases work.
The final point I wish to address are settlements, in particular; the quantum of settlements. For starters, many insurance companies are insisting on confidentiality clauses for settlements. They don’t want people blabbing to people who they should not be blabbing to about the details of the settlement. That’s not entirely a bad thing. Once people find out that you have, or are coming in to some form of money; that’s when you get lots of new friends asking you for loans, investment, or financial favours. Keep that to yourself. That’s not to say you can’t share details with an accountant, financial advisor or lawyer to get your finances straight.
The next point comes to quantum of the settlement. The policy limits under a standard automobile policy in Ontario are just $1,000,000. When someone tells you that their car accident case settled for much more than $1,000,000; it means that they are one of the lucky ones who was involved in an accident with a person who purchased optional insurance to bump up their limits; or they were involved in an accident with a commercial vehicle which is required to carry insurance over $1,000,000; or what’s behind door #3: they aren’t being truthful with you. There are certainly car accident cases out there which resolve for over $1,000,000. But, the vast majority of cases, and policies on the road will only indemnify the Plaintiff for damages up to $1,000,000 plus costs; and the vast majority of car accident cases in Ontario aren’t worth up to that amount. That means that the injured accident victim is very seriously injured; has sustained a serious income loss in excess of six figures; and/or has serious attendant care and past/future care needs which won’t be covered by OHIP. These cases do exist, but they don’t reflect the majority of car accident cases in Ontario.
