Your family doctor is the medical professional who knows you best and has a record of your health history, conditions, and treatments. They can play a significant role in proving your personal injury claim.
Your family doctor is the medical professional who knows you best and has a record of your health history, conditions, and treatments. They can play a significant role in proving your personal injury claim.
The purpose of personal injury claims is to compensate the injured party for their losses and damages, such as: medical expenses, lost income, pain and suffering, and loss of enjoyment of life. However, personal injury claims are not always simple or straightforward. They involve complex legal issues that require the expertise and guidance of a qualified personal injury lawyer. One of the most important reasons to conduct a thorough investigation in personal injury claims is to establish the liability of the responsible party. Liability is the legal term for fault or responsibility for causing an injury. In order to succeed in a personal injury claim, the injured party must prove that the other party owed them a duty of care, breached that duty of care, and caused their injury as a result.
When I meet prospective clients to discuss their personal injury matter, I stress the importance of credibility and how they present as a witness. This is especially so in cases where the client has a pre-existing history of medical issues and their injuries from the accident are, in large part, soft tissue in nature.
Personal injury law is a complex and highly specialized field, and it requires a skilled and experienced personal injury lawyer to navigate the legal system successfully. When you suffer an injury due to someone else's negligence or a denial of your long-term disability benefit, you may be entitled to claim compensation. However, securing this compensation can be a complicated and challenging process, and you need an experienced personal injury lawyer to represent you and fight for your rights.
One of the biggest challenges in chronic pain cases is the lack of objective evidence to support the claim. Unlike broken bones or other physical injuries, chronic pain is not visible and cannot be easily measured or quantified.
When you are involved in a personal injury claim, you put your past medical history into issue. It is imperative that you provide accurate information about your past medical history to those healthcare professionals who evaluate and treat you post-accident. Your past medical history is a crucial piece of evidence that will be used to determine the extent of your injuries from an accident and the value of your claim.
A structured settlement is a guaranteed tax-free monthly payment, only available to people who are settling personal injury claims. It is created when a part of a personal injury settlement is deposited with a life insurance company in exchange for guaranteed tax-free payments for a plaintiff’s lifetime or a certain period.
In 1990, Ontario ushered in a new statutory system to govern motor vehicle accidents called the Ontario Motorist Protection Plan. It established a statutory threshold that limited those who could claim for injuries from a motor vehicle accident. At the time, there was no statutory deductible in place. The purpose of the system was to remove minor claims from the legal system and essentially keep insurance premiums at a reasonable level.
Often I am asked by new clients what they can do to improve their chance of recovery. Over my career, I have noted several ways that a personal injury client can adversely impact their own claim. Here are a few examples.
I have noticed an increasing trend whereby insurance adjusters in accident benefit claims are denying treatment beyond the $3,500 under the MIG on the basis that there is no compelling evidence that the injuries fall outside the MIG (see s. 18(2) of the SABS above) without reference to an IE. Simply put, adjusters are making decisions on the basis of their own review of the medical documents without the benefit of a medical opinion.
I was recently retained as counsel to conduct a personal injury hearing at the Licence Appeal Tribunal.
When preparing for the hearing, it became apparent that one reason an insured’s claim is unsuccessful is due to the information relied upon by the insured’s expert was inaccurate (the insured failed to accurately convey evidence) or that the doctor did not conduct a thorough assessment due to a lack of documentation (key documentation was missing or lacking).
A theory is likely the most important step at the beginning of a personal injury matter. The theory must be developed early since it is the blueprint from which to develop a case. A theory will determine how the case is handled, what claims to make, witnesses necessary to call, experts to be called and what documentation to rely upon. None of these decisions can be made intelligently without a theory. Essentially, the purpose of a theory is to simplify the trial of the matter in order to obtain a favorable result. Without a theory, a case will simply become unwieldy and disorganized.
