Toronto Personal Injury Lawer Blog - Findlay Law

Property owners are required to keep their premises safe for visitors. When an apartment building, a shopping mall, or a city park is neglected, unsafe conditions may develop. A person might slip and fall on an oil spill, fall down broken steps or be attacked in the dark because of poor lighting or inadequate security.

A premises liability claim seeks to hold a property owner responsible for an injured person’s costs if the property was left unsafe. The claim may be also brought against a property manager or a contractor who worked on the property.

Many factors are considered when determining the extent of liability:

• The property’s condition
  
• The property’s purpose
  
• The reasonableness of any repair efforts made by the owner
  
• How predictable the accident was
  
• The legal status of the injured visitor 
  

Legal Status of the Visitor
The visitor may have been on the property legally or illegally. When a person is invited on to the property, like a social guest or a store’s customer, they are referred to as an invitee, and the property owner or renter is held liable for their safety.

When a visitor is on the property for his or her own reason, such as a garbage collector or lawn care professional, they are regarded as a licensee present with the property owner’s consent. A visitor on the property illegally is a trespasser. The property owner is not necessarily considered as having an obligation of reasonable care for licensees and trespassers.

Comparative Fault
In some cases the injured person is found to be partially responsible for their own accident. Visitors are thought to have a duty to exercise reasonable care for their own safety. When they fail to exercise it and sustain an injury, their compensation will be reduced proportionally to their own negligence.

If you have been injured because of a property owner’s negligence, you may have a valid legal claim. Please call or email our premises liability attorneys today to set up a free consultation and case evaluation.

Disability claims can be made either to the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) or your insurance company. The CPP defines “disability” very specifically. The disability must be:

• “Severe and prolonged”, 
  
• “Likely to be long continued and of indefinite duration or … likely to result in death”; and
  
• Such that it is impossible for you to pursue any “substantially gainful occupation”.
  

Benefits are based on how much you have contributed to the CPP over the years and there are detailed, specific parameters which must prevail at the time your disability began rather than at the time you apply for benefits. You must have contributed during at least four of the previous six years and your earnings must have been at least ten percent of the maximum pensionable earnings ($36,900). There will be a waiting period of three months.

Proof of Your Disability for the CPP
You must be able to prove that your disability is “severe”, either mentally or physically. If you are continuing to be employed in a sedentary job, you will not be considered severely disabled. If your disability is physical rather than mental, CPP will probably consider you able to hold a sedentary job. If the disability is mental, you will need evidence from a psychologist or psychiatrist showing that you are unable to hold a sedentary job.

CPP will look at your work skills to determine whether they are transferable to some other kind of work. For example, if you have been a physician and are now unable to work in that profession, CPP may still consider you able to work in a convenience store.

Negotiating with Insurance Companies
Insurance companies are notorious for trying not to pay disability claims. They have many ways of delaying, denying and underpaying, and without knowledgeable legal help you may find yourself without any compensation, even though you have faithfully paid your premiums over the years.

If you are wondering about your status as a disabled person, the best step would be to consult a disability lawyer. The law is complex and all language is carefully defined. You need someone familiar with how CPP regards health conditions and “gainful” work, how the Appeals Board can be expected to rule on appeals, and how to prevail in negotiating with your insurance company.

Please contact our personal injury law firm today to schedule a free consultation.

The head can be injured without the brain necessarily being also injured. But typically, when there is a strong impact to the head, the brain is injured, either :

• By being slammed against the inside of the skull and bruised; or
  
• By being pierced by something that penetrates the skull
  

When the brain is bruised, fluid collects in the area causing swelling. This can be very painful, since there is little room inside the skull for expansion of the brain. It can also cause secondary brain damage on top of the original damage.

Bruising is actually bleeding of very tiny blood vessels. A head trauma can also cause more copious bleeding of brain tissue. That causes a buildup of blood, since the skull cannot expand, and that build-up in turn can cause secondary injury by creating pressure on the brain.

Brain Injury Demands Careful Medical Care
The potential for secondary injury makes each brain injury individual and complex. There are classifications of brain injury into mild, moderate, and severe categories and this can be helpful in planning treatment. But each brain injury must also be looked at as unique.

By the time the injured person is receiving medical care, the original injury is past history. That damage is done. But secondary injury can be prevented if medical workers are attentive and take the right precautions. When they are inattentive or careless in the initial treatment of a brain injury patient, there might be a valid claim for medical malpractice.

Most fatal brain injuries do not kill immediately, but after days or weeks. Those days and weeks are the time when secondary injury can develop without anyone realizing it.

• The brain may be receiving too little oxygen
  
• The patient may have a stroke
  
• Body organs may become dysfunctional or non-functional, such as the kidneys or liver
  
• Blood pressure may become too low
  
• Carbon dioxide levels in the blood may become too high
  

Skilled and attentive medical professionals can anticipate these developments and take measures to prevent them. However, when they do not and a wrongful death occurs, they may be held liable.

If you or a loved one have sustained a severe brain injury and would like to know more about your legal rights and options, please call or email our brain injury lawyers today for a free consultation.

Medical malpractice cases are among the most complex and time-consuming of all lawsuits. If you have been harmed by the carelessness of a medical professional, you need a lawyer who is familiar with medical malpractice laws and how to go about obtaining a fair settlement for you.

That lawyer in turn needs to draw on the expertise of experienced medical professionals:

• To initially study your medical records and assess your situation; and
  
• To testify against another medical professional in court, if necessary.
  

It can be quite expensive to hire these expert medical witnesses. Typically, medical malpractice cases concern only very serious, perhaps permanent, injuries. They are taken on a contingency basis, which means you are not charged any up-front fees. Instead, the attorney will be paid with a percentage of the final award or settlement amount.

Dealing With Defense Lawyers
All hospitals, clinics and medical groups have attorneys to defend them against medical malpractice claims. You need to have your own attorney to represent you and protect your interests.

There will usually be at least one insurance company involved also, and insurance companies have large teams of defense lawyers. They know the laws well, and even the lawyers of your own health insurance company are not on your side in a medical malpractice lawsuit. They are looking to minimize any payments made to you because their salaries are paid by your health insurance company.

If you were in the care of a medical professional who injured you, and if you are still recovering from that double harm to your health, it is best if you can focus on your recovery. Why not let us do paperwork for you, deal with insurance companies, investigate exactly what happened to harm you, and fight to obtain compensation for you?

You can read more on our Medical Malpractice Questions page.

Please call or email our medical malpractice lawyers today to arrange your free consultation.