Filing a Personal Injury Compensation Claim in Toronto
One minute, you’re minding your own business driving the family home from a day out, the next minute, a distracted driver wanders into your lane and sends your vehicle spinning out of control, across oncoming traffic and into a tree. You and your loved ones suffer serious injuries, including broken bones and concussions.
Owing to the driver’s negligence and the involvement of serious injuries, you and your family are eligible to pursue personal injury compensation claims.
Your wife, who works as a dental assistant three days a week and took the brunt of the impact, is knocked out and suffers multiple fractures. She spends three days in Intensive Care, while you and your two children get away with a week’s hospital stay. Your son, who is in his first year at university, requires extensive physiotherapy and rehabilitation for months after the crash and is forced to take a year out from college.
The resultant expenses are going to be enormous, in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions.
Fortunately, there are two types of personal injury compensation available to you.
Types of Compensation
Accident Benefit
Under Canadian law, you and your family are entitled to two layers of compensation, Accident Benefit and, under certain circumstances, you may pursue a claim for compensation under tort law.
Under Ontario’s no-fault insurance regime, Accident Benefit is an automatic entitlement and usually financed by your own car insurer.
Benefit claims to not affect your insurance rates, even if the accident is your fault. It is payable to the driver, passengers, and any pedestrians that may have been hit by your car.
Tort-Dependent Claims
The purpose of tort law, in general, is to provide compensation for individuals who have been injured or whose property has been damaged because of wrongdoing by someone else.
Tort law is the cornerstone of the Canadian legal system. Most tort law is made by judges, but some originate in statutes, which vary from province to province. In Toronto, this is Ontario provincial law.
The word tort law comes from the Latin tortum, which means, “wrong, injustice.” The aim is not to punish hapless individuals who make mistakes but to provide damages to victims as compensation.
There are many different types of tort law, such as Intentional, which is the most serious; Torts of Negligence, Compensation, Strict Liability, and others.
This is commonly known as a lawsuit. Ontario provincial law says that you may be able to hold the other party liable for damages in a tort action in the event you sustain serious injuries.
In the above case, both criteria were met, and you are free to file a personal injury compensation claim.
Types of Benefits Covered by Personal Injury Claims
Both Accident Benefit and personal injury compensation under tort law cover:
- Medical and rehabilitation costs
- Travel expenses — This refers to the costs of going back and forth for medical appointments. With a sharp lawyer, you may also be able to submit personal injury claims for travel to get around town for shopping, etc., if you are unable to drive.
- Home maintenance needs
- Lost work income (capped at $400/week under Accident Benefit). If you and anyone in your family earn more than the capped amount, you may pursue personal injury compensation to meet the shortfall.
- Future care costs
- Lost education expenses — Your son may be able to recover damages in personal injury compensation for money he paid in college tuition
Figuring out which types of compensation you are eligible to claim, especially under tort law, can be tricky. By engaging the services of a personal injury lawyer, you can make sure you receive all the personal injury compensation to which you are entitled. You deserve justice.
