The Plaintiff, Andrea Heiner, claimed compensation against various defendants arising from damage caused to her vehicle following its involvement in a collision in which Heiner was not at fault. Heiner sued both the owner and driver of the at fault vehicle that struck hers, and her own automobile insurer (Desjardins Group). The action proceeded to trial and was heard over two days in 2015 before Deputy Judge Anschell. The action was dismissed in its entirety in a written decision issued in January 2016.
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A Punitive Costs Award Against a SRL – and the Lawyers Who Gloat
$15,000 awarded against a SRL for “intentionally” driving up costs
This ruling on costs by Madam Justice McGee awards $15,000 of costs against the applicant mother (self-representing) in a child support variation case. The respondent father was represented by counsel, and the judge accepted the argument that the mother had intentionally escalated the dispute, thereby running up his legal costs.
Rethinking our understanding of chronic pain and use of opioids: Doctors’ Notes
We are very much in the middle of an opioid crisis and the statistics are staggering. One in every eight deaths of young people in this province is attributable to opioids. We have more deaths per year from opioids than we did at the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis and opioid related deaths continue to climb in each province and territory.
The Brain’s Way of Healing
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
$85,000 Lumbar Facet Syndrome Non Pecuniary Award Survives Appeal
In today’s case (Villing v. Husseni) the Plaintiff was injured in 2010 in a collision caused by the Defendant. She suffered a low back injury diagnosed as Lumbar Facet Syndrome. In finding nothing wrong with the trial judge’s $85,000 assessment of non-pecuniary damages the BC Court of Appeal provided the following reasons:
Van Galder v. Economical Mutual Insurance Company, 2016 ONCA 804 (CanLII)
[11] There is no issue that the respondent was seriously injured in a motor vehicle accident on January 20, 2004. She suffered significant physical injuries to both legs. Since the date of the accident, she has been unable to walk unaided and is now wheelchair-bound. Subsequent complications and surgeries that followed over the next several years resulted in the amputation of her lower right leg and left her with chronic pain.
[93] The appellant submits that the application judge’s order has the opposite effect: it “incentivizes” an insured person to delay his or her catastrophic application as long as possible in order to accrue tremendous amounts of interest in the interim. According to the appellant, this would also create difficulty for insurers in properly establishing reserves for claims files open beyond the 104 (or 260)-week period.
[94] These arguments were submitted to and rejected by the application judge. I also would not give effect to them.
[95] First and foremost, it defies common sense that a catastrophically impaired insured person would delay making an application that would open the door to desperately needed enhanced catastrophic benefits. I agree with the application judge’s observations in this regard:
A catastrophic injury is a serious one; catastrophically injured people require assistance to perform their activities of everyday living and to cover medical expenses. The nature of these expenses are such that they cannot be forgone by a victim or denied by an insurer, with the aim of accruing or avoiding costs.
[96] There is no question that the SABS requires an insured person to make the necessary applications and provide the required information to an insurer. However, these obligations must be understood in the context of a catastrophic impairment. The nature of many catastrophic impairments may necessarily render a catastrophically impaired insured person incapable of navigating and completing the complicated and detailed application process for a catastrophic impairment determination. As the application judge found, this is clearly what happened in the present case.
Health-care watchdogs making cautions issued over mistakes or bad behaviour public
Until recently, cautions — such as those issued for drug-dispensing errors or delays in sending patients for crucial followup appointments — were kept secret from the public, including future patients critics say deserved to know the track record of each health professional.
Patients sue doctor after suffering infections, serious illnesses under his care
Dr. Stephen James was found by a disciplinary committee of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario to have treated a number of patients in unsterile conditions, some of whom later became seriously ill.
https://www.thestar.com/news/g
Juries swayed by big $ spent on IBC fraud campaigns
It would seem that David Cheifetz, a now retired defence lawyer, can be as insulting to auto insurance claimants via his incredibly ignorant statements to the Chair of FAIRAssociation.ca (not-for-profit motor vehicle accident victim group seeking insurance reform) as so many of the rogue IME assessors are to claimants they assess, whom they deny in order to keep their lucrative insurer-paid jobs.