FAQs

What is personal injury law?

Personal injury law is the field of the law which encompasses all to do with personal injury. If you’ve been hurt in a car accident, boating accident, motorcycle accident, slip and fall accident, or you’re disabled and claiming compensation from an insurance company, your claim is a personal injury claim. Personal injury claims can help people like you collect compensation or benefits from the at fault party or insurance company responsible for paying out such claims. Personal injury law encompasses the fields of tort law, civil litigation, municipal liability, product liability, sexual harassment, accident benefits, long term disability and medical malpractice.

What can a personal injury lawyer do for me?

A personal injury lawyer, such as the lawyers of Goldfinger Personal Injury Law, only handle personal injury cases to get compensation for accident victims or disability claimants. As your lawyer, we will assist you in recovering those benefits which the insurer has denied you; or help you in recovering a lump sum award or financial settlement for your damage claim arising from a collision, accident or insurance dispute. All of the lawyers at Goldfinger Personal Injury Law have years of training in the field of personal injury law. We do not accept cases from insurance companies. All of our personal injury lawyers are Canadian trained, and are members in good standing with the Law Society of Upper Canada. We will visit you at the hospital, come to your home, meet with you at one of our three offices, or speak with you over the phone. All of our first consultations are free and there is no pressure to sign. We take our cases on a contingency fee basis meaning you don’t have to pay any legal fees until the case settles. We are here to serve you as best as we can.

How long do I have to sue or start my personal injury case?

The sooner you call Goldfinger Personal Injury Law, the better. Every case is unique and every case presents itself with its own set of limitation period challenges. This is why we urge clients to contact us right away, so we can deal with these limitation periods to start your claim, before they have elapsed. If you miss a limitation period in your case, there is a strong possibility that the Court will dismiss your personal injury claim and order that you pay the other side’s legal costs. Nobody wants to see this happen. Generally, in Ontario, car accident victims have 2 years to start an action against the at-fault driver. But, there are other limitation issues when dealing with car accident cases. Car accident cases are different than municipal slip and falls, which have a 10 day written notice period, followed by a 2 year limitation period. As mentioned, each case has its own unique limitation period. Call Goldfinger Personal Injury Law today to get more detailed and more specific answers about how long you have to sue to start your personal injury case.

How much does it cost to talk with a Goldfinger Personal Injury Law lawyer?

It costs you NOTHING to speak with one of our personal injury lawyers. That’s right. It’s completely FREE of charge to speak with one of us. If you have a personal injury law question, give us a call or send us an email and we will get back to you guaranteed.

How much can I expect to receive in my personal injury law case?

Every person is different, every case is different and every injury is different. There are no quick and definite answers to this question. Unlike some parts of the United States, there are caps on pain and suffering awards in Canada. In Canada, damage awards for pain and suffering are capped at around $310,000-$330,000.Thisis the absolute maximum which the courts will award for a pain and suffering claim. But what’s not capped are damages for future and past loss of income; past and future attendant care; past and future care costs; loss of competitive advantage in the workplace along with other variables not associated with pain and suffering damages. These damages will be added to the pain and suffering award (general damages), to increase the global value of the personal injury claim. The higher these figures, the higher value a personal injury case will likely have. In Ontario, there are also deductibles for car accident claims which do not exceed $100,000. If your car accident case does not exceed $100,000; then a $30,000 deductible is applied. This means that the first $30,000 of your award under $100,000 will vanish into thin air. This means that if a Court awards you $40,000 at trial, that award will be reduced to just $10,000 after the statutory deductible is applied. That’s just how the law works for car accident cases in Ontario. It’s not very favourable to accident victims.

How much are your fees?

At Goldfinger Personal Injury Law, we take 99.9% of our cases on a contingency fee basis. This means that you don’t have to pay any legal fees whatsoever until your case settles. The percentage we charge all depends on the nature of your case. Some of the variables which we look to are the nature of your accident and the nature of your injuries; how difficult your case will be to prove; how complicated your case is, and what we can expect to receive should we be successful in recovering a damage award on your behalf. At the end of the day, if we don’t collect any money for you, then we get nothing. It’s that simple. We will assume all of the risk in investing our time, resources and money into your case. All you need to do as a client of Goldfinger Personal Injury Law is focus on your rehabilitation and wellness. Let us take care of the rest.

Why do I need a personal injury lawyer?

If you’ve been seriously hurt or injured in an accident, then you know exactly why you need a personal injury lawyer. Bills will start piling up. Insurance companies will start calling you. Forms to complete, your mailbox will start to overflow with all sorts of hard to understand time sensitive legal paperwork for you to fill out and complete. We will take all of that off your plate. We will help you set up a rehabilitation and management team right away to optimize your recovery. We will make sure your out of pocket expenses get paid in a timely manner. We will help you recover income replacement benefits, attendant care benefits, set up a debt consolidation plan if necessary, and put you in touch with all the right doctors and treatment professionals. We will help ease the load and make sure the insurance company takes your claim seriously. Do you really think an insurance company is going to take your case seriously if you’re representing yourself, or with a lawyer who dabbles in personal injury law? If that’s the case, then you’ve guaranteed that your personal injury file will go right to the bottom of the insurance adjuster’s file where it won’t receive the proper attention which it deserves.

Goldfinger Personal Injury Law has offices in Toronto, London and Peterborough; but I don’t live near any of these offices. Can Goldfinger Personal Injury Law still represent me?

So long as you live in Ontario, or your accident happened in Ontario, we can help you! We have clients all across the province, from Sarnia to Thunder Bay, Goldfinger Personal Injury Law can help. If your accident is serious enough, we will have one of our personal injury lawyers drive or even fly out to come and visit you in your home town, or at the hospital. Our toll free number works throughout Ontario 1-877-730-1777 and makes it FREE to call us wherever you are. You can also email us at info@goldfingerlaw.com about your case and we will get back to you. If your accident did not happen in Ontario, then we’re sorry but we can’t help you. We only practice law in the Province of Ontario. We do not practice law outside of the Province of Ontario. If your accident happened outside of Ontario, then you will have to contact a lawyer within that Province to assist you.

Does Goldfinger Personal Injury Law handle WSIB cases?

The quick answer is NO; Goldfinger Personal Injury Law does NOT handle WSIB matters. If you call with a WSIB question or problem, we will likely refer you to somebody else outside of our office who handles these matters.

Will my case to go trial?

99% of all personal injury cases settle outside of the courtroom without ever going to trial. Some cases however need to go to trial because both sides are so far apart and there are too many contentious issues such as liability, damages or the credibility of the parties. Results at trial are always uncertain. There is no “sure thing” in Court of law. Anyone who tells you differently or that your case is a “slam dunk” doesn’t know what they’re talking about.

If my case doesn’t go to trial, how long will it take to settle my case?

Every case is different. Some cases take longer to settle. Other cases settle faster than others. It all depends on the nature of the case, the extent of the injuries, the extent of your recovery, and how the insurance company or adjuster perceives you and your case. Some cases can take many years to settle; particularly the more serious injury cases. Other cases can take a few months to settle; this applies more to smaller cases where liability is not an issue and the injuries are not catastrophic in nature. At the end of the day, personal injury cases are long marathons. They are not sprints. Insurance companies do not like paying people quickly for personal injury claims. If the lawyers of Goldfinger Personal Injury Law could get you millions and millions of dollars the day after the accident, we would do so. But this is not how personal injury cases work, nor how insurance companies operate. Insurers are meticulous and would rather wait it out until all of your documents have been collected and reviewed and scrutinized time and time again. Some cases can take years, other can take months. It all depends on your case.

Should I see my doctor after a personal injury accident?

If you’re hurt or injured, then you should see a doctor. This has nothing to do with your case. It has to do with your health and personal well-being. The logic is that hurt people or sick people seek medical attention while healthy people do not. Insurers or Courts are quickly to draw an inference between people who don’t see their doctor and people who are not in pain. After you’ve seen your doctor, he/she will take a note from that visit, and may prescribe you with some medication or refer you to a specialist for further treatment. Those notes can be very telling for your case. The notes may say that you’re healthy as an ox. The notes may say that you’re deeply injured as a result of serious car accident. The lawyers of Goldfinger Personal Injury Law collect these clinical notes and records from your various doctors, and use those notes to help establish your case to prove your damages. Courts in Ontario want proof of your damages. Just saying that you’ve been hurt or injured in an accident is not enough. Your pain, your damages and your symptoms need to be proved in Court. One of the ways we do this is by gathering your doctor’s records. If you don’t see your doctor, you likely aren’t getting the treatment you need to assist in your rehabilitation. Thus, an insurer or Court may find that you are failing to mitigate your damages. This is not good for your health or for your case either. As a client of Goldfinger Personal Injury Law, we want you to do everything in your power within reason to get better and lead a normal life as you did before the accident. For some people, this is not even a possibility. But for others, it might be and there is nothing better for a case than a client who tries time after time to get better, to return to work and to rehabilitate to their full potential.

What is the difference between an accident benefit adjuster and a tort adjuster?

Both tort adjusters and accident benefit adjusters work for insurance companies. Sometimes they work for the same company, but in different departments. Sometimes they work for completely different companies. In most cases, the accident benefit adjuster will be the insurance adjuster from your own or from your spouse’s car insurance company. They will be responsible in administering your no fault accident benefits arising from a car accident. These accident benefits include but are not limited to income replacement benefits ($400/week); attendant care benefits ($1,500/month) and housekeeping benefits ($100/week). A tort adjuster works for the insurance company from the driver or the responsible party which hit you. They are not responsible for accident benefits. They handle the tort part of your claim, which includes but is not limited to damages for pain and suffering, past/future loss of income, loss of competitive advantage, Family Law Act Claims, or any other heads of damages which are not covered by accident benefits. If both accident benefit adjuster and tort adjuster work for the same company, there is a “Chinese Wall” erected between the adjusters which is supposed to eliminate all communication between adjusters about your specific file. If the adjusters are found to be colluding, communicating or collaborating on your case without your consent, then the insurance company may be liable for bad faith damages in your claim. A lawyer from Goldfinger Personal Injury Law can give you more information on what sort of behaviour constitutes bad faith.