Total benefit income for those who depend on Ontario Works (OW) and the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) locks nearly 895,000 Ontarians into deep poverty, according to Ontario’s Social Assistance Poverty Gap (PDF), a May 2016 report authored by Kaylie Tiessen, an economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).
https://nowtoronto.com/news/th
A recent case provides a warning to health care professionals to be mindful of the inappropriateness of speaking in front of patients in a language that he or she may not understand. Even if what the health care professional is saying is innocent and inconsequential, the patient may not know that. Patient perception is key.
http://rosensunshine.com/profe
Seven years ago Dr. Norman Doidge introduced neuroplasticity to the world – the idea that our brains aren’t rigidly hardwired as was once believed, but that they can change, and can be rewired. Indeed, what is unique about the brain is that its circuits can, through mental experience and activity, form, unform, and reform in new ways.
http://www.cbc.ca/natureofthin
[34] What the Tribunal does not explain is how this balancing reasonably results in the conclusion that ownership costs should be completely excluded from the calculation when it comes to reimbursing a recipient for the costs of travel to medical appointments by private vehicle. In this regard, the evidence before the Tribunal was clear. Those costs, even when ownership costs were factored in, are considerably lower than the cost of the alternative modes of travel available to the Appellant – namely, taxi or agency driver. Thus, in the face of a mandatory obligation to pay the benefit, if the Appellant did not use his car, the taxpayers of Ontario would incur a greater cost than they would incur by reimbursing the Appellant for the expenses associated with the use of his personal vehicle, even if those expenses include ownership expenses.
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Comments
October 26th, 2016 at 10:50 am
Recent decisions in respect to car accident cases in Ontario courts speak to the need to review the use of juries in the personal injury context. Years of influencing juries through PR by the Insurance Bureau of Canada have undermined not just the victims, but our justice system itself. Unfair and negative commentary about injured MVA victims in advertising paid for by the industry bear fruit ($$$) for insurers in our courts. Maligning the injured has become so pervasive that in Mandel v Fakhim, 2016 ONSC 6538 the Judge has expressed himself as powerless, frustrated and disturbed by the result. We shouldn’t be allowing our justice system to be used as a club to beat down victims and their claims; it’s abusive and unnecessarily expensive for the taxpayer who is paying the costs.
Rhona DesRoches, FAIR
Ending the use of jury trials in personal injury cases doesn’t have much to do with restricting freedom of speech for insurers who will undoubtedly continue with their fight to reduce claims costs under the guise of a fight on fraud. The constant maligning of MVA victims over decades by the IBC/insurers in advertising has had the intended consequence of negatively influencing the public and that has included potential jurors. This is not just one case. In Bruff-Murphy v Gunawardena, 2016 http://canlii.ca/t/gmr5x there’s an acknowledgement that the expert evidence that the Judge found questionable may not have been viewed in the same way by the jury. Juries are made up of ordinary people with the ordinary expectation that the evidence they are presented with is honest. Anyone working in the personal injury field knows that this is often not the case when it comes to Ontario’s ‘experts’ whose medical opinions are relied on by insurers to delay and deny legitimate claims. Auto insurance is a dirty game played out in our courts and if the flawed evidence is going to be allowed in the door you can’t expect the ordinary jurors to filter out the junk medicine replete with biased or flawed opinions and come to a just decision. According to StatsCan there are over 59,000 (2015) auto insurance related cases on the docket in Ontario; aside from pointing out that this is indicative of an unaddressed problem with Ontario’s auto insurance, it’s a massive amount of money being laid out by taxpayers when 50% of claims are denied and end up in hearings.
http://www.slaw.ca/2016/10/26/wednesday-whats-hot-on-canlii-188/comment-page-1/#comment-948175
Anyone reading the tragic story of Adam Bari out of Hamilton, Ontario this past week will undoubtedly feel overwhelming sympathy for his now dire situation and will at the same time experience incredible apprehension and fear at the thought of such a tragedy ever happening to either themselves or to a loved one.
http://otlablog.com/protect-yo
LowestRates.ca, a comparison site for car insurance rates, investigated what factors are truly impacting car insurance rates in Ontario. The company’s data revealed, over the past year, a significant 9 per cent drop in the average insurance rate with an average premium of $2,353/year dropping to $2,154/year when Ontarians shopped around for a rate. To gain a better understanding of what affects drivers’ insurance rates, the company looked at numerous factors that play a role in rising or lowering individual rates.
Sometimes the full effects of changes to auto insurance legislation aren’t felt or understood until you have to make a claim. There are so many numbers, conditions and exceptions to keep track of, and it can be hard to truly appreciate these abstracts. Here is a recent news story that illustrates this concept perfectly.
http://www.vandykelaw.ca/2016/
According to a recent report from the Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO), rates went up by an average of 1.5 per cent in the third quarter, which follows an average increase of 0.33 per cent the quarter before.
When a serious injury occurs, it can have a major impact on the career path and potential earnings of the victim, but it is often difficult to predict the exact value of this loss. This valuation is even harder when considering the ongoing trend towards self-employed contract work and nontraditional employ
http://otlablog.com/injured-an