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”

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”

How should someone go about selecting the right lawyer?

How should someone go about selecting the right lawyer?

Often the best way to pick a lawyer is by speaking with family and friends about their experience with a particular lawyer. If you are trying to choose a lawyer where you don’t have a friend or family member’s referral to the lawyer, the most important thing in my opinion is that you need to feel ‘comfortable’ with the lawyer you selected.

For cases that operate on contingency, you do have an opportunity to try visiting or speaking to a few different lawyers to determine who you trust or click with more.

Some want their lawyer to be located downtown in a high-rise office tower and be dressed in a three-piece suit. If that’s what makes you feel comfortable and gives you a sense trust in your lawyer, then that’s where you should look for your lawyer. Alternatively, other people can be somewhat intimidated by the ‘big downtown law firm’ scenario. Those people need to find a smaller law firm where the lawyers are ‘approachable’ and give you a good first impression.

You want someone who is experienced in the field where you need help, will listen to you and work hard for you. Ultimately you should hire the lawyer who provides a sense of comfort and trust.

* Input from Conway Injury Law.

Unseen Doesn’t Mean Un-hurt

Soft tissue damage is usually unseen. That means to people around you your injuries seem like phantom boo-boos, but in reality you’re in real pain. Family, friends, and other loved ones need to show empathy to those with soft tissue damage as these injuries do not come with broken bones or prolonged bruising.

You may slowly find yourself doing less and less around the house because your injuries are getting worse and worse. To those around you it may seem as if you’re physically fine on the outside and are just getting lazy! Remember, just because it can’ tbe seen doesn’t mean you aren’t hurt!

Secured Financing Intro

The idea of modernizing finance law has spread around the world. Secured financing is a way to stimulate economic growth and modernize an economy. In theory, capital is not used to develop the community because of the lack of legal infrastructure by which banks can lend capital and can hold an expectation to get it back. Many developing countries adopt systems patterned on the Canadian system.

In Canadian law, the core of the system is the security interest. What is a security interest? A secured interest is Propriety interest in the debtors property. This allows assertion of the nemo dat principle. The secured creditor defeats anyone who thereafter who takes an interest in the property.

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Introduction to the Tort of Negligence

Here are some introductory points on the tort of negligence.

The Elements of a Negligence Action –

Remember, the plaintiff usually has the burden of proving the first five, while the defendant has the burden of proving the sixth.

1. Duty of Care (limiting step) – there are policy considerations that can lead to the finding and non finding of a duty of care; this duty of care exists when it is reasonably foreseeable that your actions will have an effect on another person.

2. Standard of Care and its Breach – in most (but not all) negligence actions, the standard of care is the reasonable person standard .

3. Causation – has the breach of the duty of care caused an injury to the plaintiff? But for the breach of the duty of care, would the injury have occurred?

4. Remoteness of Damages (limiting step) – also called legal causation; if the damages are found to be too remote from the breach of the standard of care, then the plaintiff will not win the case.

5. Actual Loss – without loss, the plaintiff will not be successful (as opposed to intentional torts)

6. Defences – voluntary assumption of risk, illegality

Terms of Employment Contracts

The rules of employment contracts are similar to the rules of contract in general. For example, as per the freedom of contract, one is fully entitled to choose whether or not they want to enter into a contract. This applies to employment contracts as well. Employers are free to decide whether or not they want to enter into a contract with you i.e. hire you. Just like in regular contracts, the principles of offer, acceptance, consensus ad idem, etc are necessary to form an employment contract. An employer cannot unilaterally impose a contractual term onto an employee.

Definitions of Administrative Law (Canada)

Administrative actor: subject to the principles of admin law. Includes persons or bodies that exercise statutory or prerogative power. Boards, tribunals, etc are usually given authority pursuant to statute.

Judicial review: administrative actors are subject to judicial review. It is part of public law where superior courts under s96 engage in surveillance of lower tribunals to ensure they are acting legally. S96 courts derive their power from s96 of constitution, hence the name. The role of s96 courts in judicial review is part of their inherent authority. Federal courts operate differently they operate as equivalent as s96 court however they have statutory power, not inherent power. When they invented federal courts they took some powers that should belong to s96 courts and gave them to federal courts.

Sample cases where judicial review does or does not apply.

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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.

Continue reading “The Symptoms of Whiplash and Possible Side Effects”