Martin & Hillyer Associates
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The Ontario government is looking for feedback on two proposed changes to the way your car insurance works. You can have your say about these two reforms by completing the online surveys.
After a car accident, there are some important steps you should take. Get a copy of our free Car Accident Checklist to be sure you’ve covered all the bases.
So, you have just signed your will and powers of attorneys – now what should you do? You have already done the hard work of deciding what you want to do with your estate and finalizing the documents, but there are still some tasks for you tackle
In our justice system, we give jurors profound responsibility and power when we entrust them to render verdicts in legal disputes. The problem in civil cases is that, despite the trust we put in jurors, we do not tell them the whole story or the context in which their decisions are being rendered.
We have received reports of people receiving fraudulent faxes that include our address and the name “Lakeshore Law Chambers.” This is a scam!
The circumstances under which a former employee could still make a long-term disability claim after leaving his or her position have not always been well defined. Specifically, whether an employee who was injured while under the policy, but only discovered the long-term effects of that injury after leaving that position, would still be able to claim LTD benefits has been unclear. The Ontario Court of Appeal provided some guidance for this in its recent decision of MacIvor v. Pitney Bowes.
Do I have a medical malpractice case? That question is asked of many lawyers daily in this province. Unfortunately, the answer is often no! Mainly, because a poor result of a procedure or treatment doesn’t necessarily mean someone screwed up.
Since January 1, 2015, anyone who has been issued a Certificate of Appointment of Estate Trustee has been required to file the Estate Information Return (“EIR”) with the Ministry of Finance within 90 days of the Certificate being issued.As it is now just slightly more than 4 years since this requirement came into play, it seems as good a time as any to reflect on the process and what could be improved.
Periodically I am contacted by someone who has been a victim of a criminal offence. As a personal injury lawyer my job is to obtain compensation for the victim for the damages caused by the criminal. In addition to the civil remedies (e.g., filing a lawsuit, questioning the perpetrator at discovery, etc.) there is also a little-used section of the Criminal Code which can be very effective in obtaining at least partial compensation for victims of crime.
Between now and February 15, 2019, the Ontario government is looking for public feedback about how to reform car insurance in the province. Unfortunately, their focus seems to be exclusively on reducing premiums, rather than ensuring fair benefits for injured people. Like so many governments before them, the fear is that they will try to reduce rates by cutting benefits for accident victims even further, and by making the process to claim benefits even more difficult.