Introduction
Motor Vehicle Accident 101
If you are ever in a motor vehicle accident (“MVA”), take care of your health first! You have two years from the date of the motor vehicle accident to pursue an action. There is no hurry to retain a lawyer as we will be here for when you need us. However, you should keep in mind that we rely on the various medical records to establish your claim and injuries. Make sure to keep a record of everything and attend your doctor’s office as needed as well as any experts.
Section B Benefits
Whenever there is an accident, regardless of who is at fault, if you are a passenger or a driver of a vehicle, then you can receive Section B Benefits. Your insurance will provide you with Section B Benefits. If you are a passenger, the insurance of the vehicle you are a passenger in will provide you Section B Benefits. Section B Benefits will cover the cost of treatment up to a certain amount. However, the policy typically requires that you first exhaust any personal health benefits prior to Section B Benefits will cover your treatments. Keep in mind that although the Section B Benefits may only approve you for a certain amount of treatment. You can request further treatment by speaking to the adjuster or having your treatment provider submit further document to request same.
What To Do After An Accident?
First, always prioritize your own health and safety. If you have injured your head, neck or back, you should stay put until emergency services can assist you and provide the appropriate care. If the accident involves an injury or there is significant damage to either of the vehicles, you should contact the police.
Should it be safe to do so, you will want to document the scene. Document the vehicles involved in the accident by taking pictures and making note of the positions of the vehicle, any skid marks, and the license plate. You will also want to exchange contact details and insurance information with any other drivers involved in the accident. Further, you should speak to any witnesses and ask them for their contact details.
If your injuries are not severe enough that to require you to go to the hospital, you should still seek medical attention as soon as you are reasonably able. Furthermore, you should take pictures of your injuries.
It is very important for personal injury claims to have thorough documentation. We rely on your medical records to establish the injuries and the severity of your injuries. Also, we rely on your treatment records to establish the duration of your recovery. Be sure that you inquire with your doctor about any further testing, x-rays, or referrals to specialists.
All victims of an accident have an obligation to mitigate their damages. Meaning they have an obligation to take all necessary steps to recover as quickly as you can through attending your doctor, treatment or specialists.
What Can Our Motor Vehicle Accident Lawyers Do For You?
After having a consultation, we will let you know if your matter is one that we are willing to take on. We will provide you with some information about the next steps. If you retain our services then we will send a letter to the relevant parties, as well as your own insurance company and the opposing insurance company. This is to let them know that we will be representing you with respect to your MVA.
We generally like the client to be substantially healed, healed, or find out injuries are permanent before taking further steps. Once the client has informed us of this, we will collect their medical records from the various clinics, hospitals or treatment providers that they have attended. After we have collected the medical records, we will typically draft a settlement proposal. This is to see if we can resolve the matter before proceeding with litigation. If the other side is not willing to negotiate or the negotiations are not fruitful, then we proceed with filing a Statement of Claim. Moreover, if we are close to your limitation period, then we will file a claim before trying to negotiate a settlement or proceed with litigation steps if necessary.
More often than not, insurance adjusters will try to contact the injured victims of an accident. The will try to get injured victims to settle before their injuries have largely resolved. Through our involvement you will not have to deal with the adjusters. We will deal with the adjusters, provide you advice along the way. We will also inform you of your legal options and guide you through the litigation process.
Initial Litigation Steps
After a claim has been filed and served on the other party, they have 20 days to file their Statement of Defence. Once we receive service with the Statement of Defence you have 3 months to complete an Affidavit of Records. The Affidavit of Records is your disclosure. It is made up of relevant and material documents that pertain to your matter. After your Affidavit or Records has been served on the other side, then the other side will have two months to complete theirs. Thereafter, the parties will schedule questioning. Generally speaking, assuming there are no other applications, the matter will proceed to mediation or arbitration. If you are unable to settle the matter through mediation or arbitration, then we will schedule a trial.
What Do Our Clients Receive In Terms Of Dollars?
Each injury claim is unique to the person with the injury. As such, it is difficult to assess what a person will receive without looking at various documents. Such as medical records, financial information, and case law. Therefore, it is better to explain the heads of damages that one can claim. When we refer to damages, we are referring to compensation and aspects of a claim that you can receive compensation. Generally speaking, all damages fall within two groups – general damages and special damages.
General damages, aka non-pecuniary damages, are those damages that are not directly quantifiable. This includes pain and suffering, as well as any psychological injury which does not have a direct monetary value. Whereas special damages, aka pecuniary damages, are ones that have a clear monetary value. Such as a loss of income from missing work or the cost of care which can be shown through receipts.
In order to quantify general damages, we look to case law. This is where a judge has decided an amount to award based on similar injuries. We typically try to find cases where the injuries were worse, similar and a case that has lesser injuries in order to be able to value the general damages.
Special Damages
There are several heads of damages under special damages, which include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Loss of Income
- Loss of Housekeeping Capacity
- Cost of Care
- Out of Pocket Expenses
Loss of income is fairly straight forward. It pertains to the days of work you had to miss as a result of your injuries for days you did not receive compensation. Loss of housekeeping capacity pertains to the inability of an injured person to do various tasks inside and outside of their home due to their injuries. Cost of Care pertains to any medical treatment for which an injured party has to pay out of pocket. Out of Pocket Expenses refers to other non-medical expenses that you may incur as a result of your injuries.
The amount a client will receive will depend on all of the above factors, as well as the severity of injuries, the recovery time, if there is a cap on the injuries for general damages, the amount of their claim for loss of income, loss of housekeeping, cost of care and other out of pocket expenses they have incurred.
This article is intended for informational purposes only. Readers are cautioned that this article does not constitute legal or professional advice and should not be relied on as such. Rather, readers should obtain specific legal advice in relation to the issues they are facing.