Legal News Headlines - Kitchener Injury Lawyers & Disability Lawyers

Following are recent news items related to personal injury law and disability law.

The Kitchener Waterloo Record
A Brantford man suffered serious but non-life-threatening injuries when the transport truck he was driving rolled over at the Highway 6-401 interchange. Police believe the automobile parts the truck was carrying may have shifted, causing the vehicle to rollover.

Accident Benefits Coverage Changing Sept 1, 2010

The Toronto Star
This article talks about new Accident Benefit Limits and optional coverate that comes in effect on Sept 1, 2010 in Ontario. Given that injuries are reported in 54% of private passenger car accidents covered by auto insurance, you should consider increasing the amount of accident benefits coverage available to you. Drivers who renew their car insurance after Sept. 1 must pay extra to continue to have $100,000 coverage for injuries that are neither minor nor catastrophic, the standard accident benefit amount is being reduced to $50,000 of medical and rehabilitation coverage.

Ontario Regulators to Create Standard for Assessing Car Accident Injuries

Canadian Underwriter
Standards for car accident injury claims in Ontario are managed by the Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO). FSCO has announced that one of its top priorities for 2010 is developing industry-wide delivery standards for third-party medical examinations and qualifications for assessors. FSCO also plans to appoint a panel of experts to recommend changes to the definition of catastrophic impairment in the Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule (SABS).

Canadian Teen Detained in Cuba after Car Accident

CTV News
An Ontario teenager has been detained in Cuba after being injured in a car accident that was not even his fault. Canada's Foreign Affairs departments warns that traffic accidents are a frequent cause of arrest and detention of Canadians in Cuba. Accidents resulting in death or injury are treated as crimes, and the onus is on the driver to prove their innocence. Regardless of the nature of the accident, it can take five months to a year for a case to go to trial. In most cases, the driver will not be allowed to leave Cuba until the trial has taken place.

OPP Warns of Email Scam

Kitchener-Waterloo Record
Ontario Provincial Police warn of an email scam where fraudsters hack people's contact list and send emails to all of a person's contacts posing as a friend or family member in urgent need of money due to a car accident or injury.

Potential victims receive the email thinking that their friend or relative is in trouble and agree to send them money. The friend or relative is unaware that their account has been used to send out these requests for money to everyone on their contact list, police said.

Texting and Cell Phone Use While Driving will soon be Banned in Ontario

Ontario police will soon have the power to ticket drivers up to $500 for chatting or texting on a hand-held cellphone, but the law will not go into effect until late October at the earliest. The Ministry of Transportation first needs to complete regulations for the "distracted driving" bill, which received third reading in the Ontario Legislature in April.

The Countering Distracted Driving and Promoting Green Transportation Act will ban the use of hand-held wireless devices such as cellphones and Blackberries, while driving. Also banned while driving, is text messaging, sending an e-mail or using an MP3 player, video game, laptop or DVD player.

Drivers can use a cellphone with earpiece or headset that uses voice-dialing. A properly secured GPS system or portable media player that is plugged into a car's sound system will still be permitted. Calls to 911 can be made.

Insurers say no-fault accident benefits are in major need of repair

February 24, 2009 - Canadian Underwriter
Ontario's accident benefit insurance costs are on the rise. This system is a curious hybrid. On the one hand, it is a no-fault system designed to get accident benefits payments to consumers quickly in order to facilitate treatment and a quick recovery. On the other hand, it's a tort system, giving claimants the ability to recover damages for bodily injury through the court system. "We have the worst of both worlds," observes Don Forgeron, Insurance Bureau of Canada's Ontario vice president. "We don't have a nofault system and we don't have a full tort system: We have both systems, whereas other jurisdictions tend to have one or the other."

Disabled Taser Victim Describes Police Treatment

October 08, 2008 - Toronto Star
A 43-year-old disabled man is seeking $9 million in suit, says police officers beat and shocked him. In a lawsuit filed in the Ontario Court of Justice, Lochner claims officers used excessive force when they barged into his bedroom Aug. 11, 2006, and shocked him, at least twice, with a Taser.

Victims claim insurance companies profiting from them

August 17, 2008 - St. Catharines Standard - Sun Media
Stephen Nelson of Woodstock's mother Glenna Nelson was killed in a 2004 crash on Hwy. 400 near Muskoka when a trucker crashed into the car in which she was travelling with her husband Doug.

To add "insult to injury to injury," the truck driver's insurance company, Zurich, threatened to sue Doug Nelson for damages, according to Nelson's lawyer, Patrick Brown, who is also president of the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association.

The company kept $165,000 in deductibles of the $256,711 total in claims awarded to 11 family members, reducing the family share to $91,711. Nelson was joined by five other loved ones of crash victims Friday in an emotional press conference at the Ontario Bar Association demanding changes to provincial regulations that govern Ontario's insurance industry.

Woman who alleges chiropractic session left her paralyzed files $529M lawsuit

June 14, 2008 - National Post - Canwest News Service
An Alberta woman has launched a $529 Million class-action lawsuit against provincial chiropractors after a neck adjustment allegedly left her paralyzed. Sandra Gay Nette has been paralyzed since Sept. 2007. The lawsuit claims that a chiropractic session damaged both her vertebral arteries, which disrupted blood flow to her brain. On her way home from the chiropractor, Ms. Nette had to pull her car to the side of the road and call for help. She sufferered permanent neurological damage. Ms. Nette is mentally aware, but cannot swallow, speak or breathe on her own.

Ontario Court of Appeal decision upholds $17-million award in personal injury case

Apr. 07, 2008 /CNW/ TORONTO
The Ontario Court of Appeal has upheld a 2006 jury verdict which, at the time of trial, was the highest award ever made in a personal injury case in Canadian history. Earl Cherniak and Kirk Stevens of Lerners LLP acted for the plaintiffs on the appeal involving a toddler who fell from a fifth-storey window back in 1997.

"The Court of Appeal rejected any suggestion that brain injury is less serious than other visible injuries," said Kirk Stevens of Lerners. "The Court of Appeal will not interfere with trial level assessments of damage as long as they are supported by the evidence and the trial is fair."

Nurses Could Get $200 Million in Back Pay

Jan. 08 2008 - CBC
Canadian taxpayers are facing a huge, unexpected bill back pay owed to hundreds of nurses, the nurses' lawyer estimates.

The nurses worked for the federal government doing medical assessments on Canadians who applied for disability payments under the Canada Pension Plan.

Judge Recommends Eliminating Insurance Threshold

Nov. 27 2007 - Toronto Star
Ontario has put too many hurdles ahead of innocent victims who seek compensation for the pain of vehicle injuries, a learned judge has suggested.

While overlooked in press reports last week, a former associate chief justice has urged the province to review the effect of defining the severity of injuries eligible for court awards, then deducting $30,000 from each award.

Merck agrees to US$$4.85B settlement over Vioxx in USA

Nov. 9 2007 - CTV News
Merck & Co. has offered to pay US$4.85 billion to end litigation with thousands of U.S. plaintiffs over its painkiller Vioxx.

Bayer temporarily suspends marketing of Trasylol in Canada

Nov. 5 2007 - Health Canada
Ottawa - At the request of Health Canada, the manufacturer Bayer Inc. has temporarily suspended marketing of the drug Trasylol (aprotinin), pending a review of preliminary results from a clinical trial (the BART study) that suggested an increased risk of death.

Consumers warned against use of recalled contact lens solution

Oct. 5 2007 - Health Canada
Ottawa - Health Canada is warning consumers not to use a recalled contact lens solution believed to be associated with serious eye problems that could lead to vision loss.

Vancouver mother launches Paxil class action lawsuit

Oct. 5 2007 - Vancouver Province
A Vancouver mother has launched a class-action lawsuit claiming the anti-depressant Paxil caused her daughter's heart defect.

Health Canada pulls arthritis drug Prexige

Oct. 4 2007 - Health Canada
Ottawa - Health Canada is halting the sale of the arthritis drug Prexige in Canada, due to the potential for serious liver problems in people taking the drug.

Court finds BC Rail liable for vehicle accident case

Sep. 28 2007 - CBC News
It has taken seven years, but a northern B.C. man has won a lawsuit against British Columbia Railway Co. and the provincial government. Larry Skopnik suffered serious injuries in 2000, when his Honda all-terrain vehicle hit a large excavation in a trail located between a highway and railway tracks west of Chetwynd.