Category: Injury & Insurance

Outlining the Costs of Speeding

Speeding is a leading cause of motor vehicle accidents. Drivers typically speed because they believe they will arrive at their destination quicker. A common misconception that many drivers have is that driving 10 km/h over the posted speed limit is low risk and will cut down on their commute time. Anecdotal evidence also suggests that law enforcement officers will not pull you over if you are speeding between 5 to 9 km/h over the posted speed limit. In reality, if you are driving even 1 km/h over the posted speed limit and a police officer with a speed gun clocks you, they are well within their rights to issue you a speeding ticket. However likely or unlikely this is to happen in real life is debatable, and not the subject of this article.

Appropriate speed limits are determined by taking into account a variety of factors, including road design, volume of traffic, as well as the likelihood of encountering pedestrians in the area. Speed limits are set for ideal road conditions, so if the roads are wet or icy and visibility is poor, the posted speed limit will be too fast. These are not arbitrarily imposed limits and they are enforced for public safety. By following the posted speed limit, you decrease your odds of being involved in a motor vehicle collision and potentially injuring yourself and another person.

Will I Save Time on My Daily Commute?
Continue reading Outlining the Costs of Speeding

Specific Section B benefits, Insurance Benefits

In Canada, depending on the province where you reside, there are certain benefits that your insurer has to pay to you after you’ve been in a car accident. Often referred to as the ‘Section B’ insurer, insurance has to pay certain benefits. Generally speaking, there are both income loss and medical expense benefits that are potentially payable. An often overlooked entitlement under the Section B benefits in Alberta is the right to claim $135 a week if you are not employed and are unable to perform your household duties. This is often referred to as the ‘homemaker’s benefit’. The relevant section of the policy reads as follows :

Continue reading Specific Section B benefits, Insurance Benefits

Protect Yourself – Hire and an Injury Lawyer When Injured in an Accident

When you’re involved in a car accident, or really any incident where you’ve been injured, it’s important to protect yourself.

You may find yourself faced off against another’s insurance company. You may also think that your insurance company is on your side. That’s partially not true. The insurance companies see you as profit–as a number. That means they may not always be looking out for your best interests 100% of the time. That’s why it’s prudent to hire an attorney who has the responsibility of thinking about you over the bottom line of the insurance companies. Continue reading Protect Yourself – Hire and an Injury Lawyer When Injured in an Accident

Limiting Your Treatments after Injury

Is it true that you are entitled to certain insurance benefits from your own insurer, regardless of who was at fault? It’s true, in Canada these benefits are often called ‘Section B benefits’. However, insurers like to erroneously inform injured clients that they will only ‘authorize’ 21 treatments (of various kinds). This is not true. Continue reading Limiting Your Treatments after Injury

Keeping an Injury Diary

If you’ve ever been injured in an accident such as a motor vehicle, then you may be seeking compensation for damages. Damages to your car is one thing, but to your body is quite another. Soft tissue damage is unseen (another blog post) and can be a prolonged injury.

Some believe keeping an injury diary is a good way to keep track of the increasing severity of their injury overtime. This may sound like a good idea at the outset, but it turns out to work against the injured. Here’s why. Continue reading Keeping an Injury Diary

Pain Free Today – Painful Tomorrow

If you sign papers because you feel just fine today, what happens if your health deteriorates tomorrow? I know of some people who’ve been in car accidents, and 10 years later their body starts to break down. What recourse do they have?

The Minor Injury Regulations (“MIR”) provide a framework to determine what injures are ‘minor’ by the courts and therefore have damages ‘capped’ at a certain value. Continue reading Pain Free Today – Painful Tomorrow

Pictures of Your Slip & Fall

What’s perhaps the greatest asset when seeking adequate compensation for a slip or fall injury? Quite simply it’s pictures. A picture in this case would be worth a 1000 words. Pictures from multiple angles, with measurement tools or comparison objects, close ups, even a landscape shot, there’s no shortage of how many pictures you can take of a scene.

Help yourself build a case by ensuring your ‘evidence’ is substantial. Continue reading Pictures of Your Slip & Fall

Just a Number with Insurance Companies

We all have to get insurance if we do certain things like drive. Other forms of insurance are ways of mitigating risk, like life insurance or home insurance.

To complicate matters there are a variety of forms of insurance one can purchase to protect the same thing. Life insurance has ‘term insurance’ or the much maligned ‘universal life‘, but there thousands of iterations.

But what happens if you need to make a claim?

Continue reading Just a Number with Insurance Companies

The Symptoms of Whiplash and Possible Side Effects

Most people have heard of whiplash, but few actually know exactly what it is and how severe it can be. Essentially, whiplash is the stretching of the ligaments in the head, neck and shoulders. In medical terms, this is called “hyperextension” or is often referred to as a “sprain”. The most common cause of whiplash is after a road traffic collision, when the seatbelt keeps your body still, but your head is thrown forward.
In most cases, whiplash only lasts for a few weeks or months. However, around 15% to 20% of people who suffer whiplash go on to experience long-term chronic pain. In addition, even if symptoms of whiplash do stop, it doesn’t mean the head or neck ligaments are fully repaired and even a small jolt could bring on the symptoms again.

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What if the xray ‘says’ there’s nothing wrong?

xray Post courtesy of Calgary injury lawyer Brian Conway.

When your involved in a collision you may discover that your injuries aren’t necessarily obvious in the first wave of diagnostics. You should be aware that certain tools, such as x-rays, may not tell the whole story about your your injuries.

You want to ensure that your injuries have been properly diagnosed so you are aware of the level of compensation you should be entitled to.

Continue reading What if the xray ‘says’ there’s nothing wrong?