When you are injured in an Ontario car accident, your insurance company is normally required to compensate you under the province’s Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule (SABS). This includes income replacement benefits in the event you are unable to return to work right away as a result of your accident. Case Study: Sabadash v. State Farm,…
If you have been injured in an accident and are set to receive a personal injury settlement or disability benefits, one of the important questions that always comes to mind is how the benefits will be taxed. Understanding how such payments impact an individual’s tax liability is critical to determining whether a settlement and/or disability…
Unlike some other Canadian provinces, in Ontario, jury trials are still regularly used in civil cases such as personal injury lawsuits. Are juries really fair to accident victims? In a 2016 case, Mandel v. Fakhim, an Ontario Superior Court judge expressed the opinion that “jury trials in civil cases seem to exist in Ontario solely…
Not every personal injury claim arising from a motor vehicle accident goes to trial. More often than not, the parties (and their insurance companies) are able to reach an amicable settlement. By working with an experienced Toronto personal injury lawyer following a car accident, you can put yourself in the best position to obtain the…
If you suffer a catastrophic injury in a motor vehicle accident, you may be legally disabled and therefore unable to return to work. Aside from any benefits you recover under your auto insurance policy, or from the negligent driver in a personal injury lawsuit, you may also qualify for other benefits, such as long-term disability…
When you’re injured in an Ontario automobile accident, Ontario law and your auto insurance policy entitle you to receive certain statutory accident benefits regardless of fault. If, as a result of your accident, you are unable to return to work for a period, those benefits include income-replacement benefits.However, in some circumstances, your insurer can require…
When you are injured in a car accident, Ontario law guarantees your right to certain benefits from your insurance carrier. These rights are spelled out in the Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule (SABS) and cover much more than your immediate medical expenses or the damage to your vehicle.Ontario’s SABS also guarantees your right to income replacement…
One of the first questions on many drivers’ minds following a motor vehicle accident is, “Am I at fault for the collision?” That question is important for several reasons. Who was at fault in Ontario auto accidents affects how much each person involved can recover for property damage and personal injuries. An at-fault driver can…
Ontario is a “no-fault” jurisdiction with respect to motor vehicle accidents. This means that your own insurance company is expected to pay you certain statutory benefits if you are injured in a car crash. Ideally, the system is supposed to promptly compensate you without the need to jump through a bunch of legal hoops. Unfortunately,…
How many times a day do you post to your Facebook or Twitter account? For some of us, social media is as much a part of our everyday routine as brushing our teeth or driving to work. We have become accustomed to sharing every minute detail of our lives with our online friends, followers, and…
The Canadian family is changing. According to Statistics Canada, in 1991, 42% of Canadians were married, and 5.5% were cohabiting with another person as a couple. By 2017, the percentage of Canadians who were married had fallen to less than 39%, and the percentage who were cohabiting had jumped to almost 10%.Social shifts like these…
If you are involved in any kind of litigation or contested judicial proceeding, you want to know that the person deciding your case will act fairly and impartially according to the law. This is especially important in car accident cases in which an injured driver or passenger seeks statutory accident benefits.Statutory benefits are a key…
Every Ontario driver is required to carry auto insurance. Unfortunately, many drivers ignore this mandate. Or if they do have insurance, it is insufficient to compensate a motor vehicle accident victim for the full amount of his or her injuries. So what does the victim do in such circumstances?Generally, the victim would turn to his…
If you’re injured in a car accident in Ontario for which another person was at fault, you may already realize that you are entitled to Statutory Accident Benefits under your own auto insurance policy and third-party liability coverage under the at-fault driver’s policy. But what happens if you have a personal injury claim against another…
In 2014 (the most recent year for which final Ministry of Transportation), there were nearly 180,000 motor vehicle accidents involving only property damage. Of course, most of the 39,000 accidents that also caused personal injury or death included property damage as well.And that raises an interesting question that we don’t often hear addressed: What’s to…
Many Ontario residents depend on a family member’s Ontario auto insurance to cover them in the event of a car accident. Under Ontario’s Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule, an “insured person” includes any “dependant of the named insured or of his or her spouse.” A dependant does not have to be a minor child, but can…
When you are injured by a negligent driver in a motor vehicle accident, you may be entitled to seek compensation from a number of sources. Obviously, you can file a personal injury claim to recover damages against the negligent driver. You can also pursue a claim with your own insurer under Ontario’s Statutory Accident Benefits…
When many people think of personal-injury lawsuits, they think of the exorbitant judgments we often hear about coming out of the United States. A significant portion of those judgments is typically a high award for the physical and mental pain and suffering that a person endures as a result of his or her injury.In Ontario,…
Ontario law requires your auto insurer to provide certain no-fault benefits in the event of a car accident, but this does not mean you can always expect your insurance company to pay these benefits without question. To the contrary, insurers often go to extraordinary lengths to justify denying a claim under Ontario’s Statutory Accident Benefits…
Before a personal-injury lawsuit in Ontario goes to trial, the parties engage in discovery. Discovery is a process by which the parties share information and evidence with each other to encourage a settlement and avoid “trial by surprise”—the sort of unanticipated evidence or witnesses that make fictional lawsuits so entertaining.Normally, the materials shared in discovery…
Ontario law requires all auto insurance companies to provide specific benefits to policyholders. These requirements are set forth in the Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule (SABS). Depending on the specific facts of your car accident, you are entitled to benefits such as medical treatment costs (beyond what your other insurance covers) and income replacement benefits if…
Recently, we addressed the question whether long-term disability benefits are taxable in Canada. As we saw, the answer to that question is complicated — some types of benefits are always taxable, some are never taxable, and some are only sometimes taxed. Today, we want to consider a similar question that has a much simpler answer:…
Many Ontarians have long-term disability insurance through their employers. Such policies provide income replacement if the employee is unable to return to work after other short-term disability benefits expire. In some situations, an employee may not immediately recognize to apply for long-term disability. For instance, if the employee suffered a traumatic brain injury, the more…
When a person is injured by another’s wrongdoing — whether those injuries are physical or emotional, as in a personal injury claim, or only legal, as in a breach-of-contract claim — Ontario law permits the injured person to sue for compensation for his or her injuries.That compensation comes in the form of damages, which are…
The Government of Ontario announced the Ontario Fair Auto Insurance Plan in December 2017 based on recommendations from the Marshall Report. The plan outlines ways to “improve the stability and long-term health of the auto insurance system in Ontario,” particularly with the creation of a Serious Fraud Office that will detect, prevent, and prosecute auto…
The results of this quiz are not intended to guarantee the outcome of your potential case. It is an application we have developed to help you get a better understanding of your situation and should not be viewed as the equivalent of speaking with an attorney.
