Generally, these benefits are available through your own auto insurance. However, if you do not have auto insurance you may claim through the auto insurance policy of the other party or parties involved in your motor vehicle accident.

In order to preserve your rights to accident benefits you must notify your auto insurer, or the other party’s auto insurance if you do not have auto insurance, of the motor vehicle accident.

Once you have informed the insurer of the accident, you will be sent a package of forms which you must complete to apply for you accident benefits.

The following is a list of some of the benefits you may be entitled to:

Medical and Rehabilitation Expenses

These expenses cover the costs of therapy, medical assessments, costs of medication and any other reasonable expenses incurred with respect to any medical or rehabilitation expenses. These expenses are generally limited to $100,000.00 or a 10 year time limit. If you are found to be catastrophically impaired, the time limit disappears and you may be entitled up to a maximum of $1,000,000.00 in expenses.

Income Replacement Benefits

This is to compensate you for any loss of income you have suffered as a result of the motor vehicle accident. This benefit is available to you for 104 weeks following the accident, if you have suffered a substantial inability to perform the essential tasks of your employment.

These benefits are payable in the amount of 80% of your net weekly income, to a maximum of $400.00 per week.

Non-Earner Benefits

If you were not employed at the time of the accident, you may be entitled to non-earner benefits if after 6 months following the accident, you suffer a complete inability to carry on a normal life. These benefits are not payable until after the 6 month period following the motor vehicle accident and are payable in the amount of $185/week.

Housekeeping and Home Maintenance Benefits

If you require assistance with your housekeeping following your accident, you may be eligible for housekeeping and home maintenance benefits, up to a maximum of $100/week.

Caregiver Benefits

If you were the primary caregiver prior to the motor vehicle accident and following the accident require assistance with your pre-accident caregiver activities, you may be eligible for caregiver benefits up to a maximum of $250.00 for one child and an additional $50.00 per child thereafter.

Attendant Care Benefits

If you require assistance with your personal maintenance task, you may be eligible for attendant care benefits which are payable to a maximum of $72,000.00, but may increase to $1,000,000.00 if you are catastrophically impaired.

Death Benefits

Death benefits are payable to the deceased’s spouse in the amount of $25,000.00, with an additional $10,000.00 to each of the deceased’s dependants.

Funeral Benefits

Funeral benefits are payable to a maximum of $6,000.00.

A Slip and Fall accident can happen in any number of ways and in any number of locations, whether it be on a sidewalk, in a grocery store, a parking lot, in somebody’s home or on their property.

The owner of any property you enter onto has a duty to keep their premises safe, so you if you fall because of ice, snow, a pool of water, debris, poor maintenance, poor lighting or any other kind of hazards you have a claim.

Notice Periods

If you have Slip and Fall or Trip and Fall accident on municipal property you may have 10 days from the date of the accident to give the municipalitie’s clerk written notice of the accident.
Without providing this notice, you may not be able to proceed with a claim and may lose your right to sue! Therefore, it is imperative that you contact a personal injury lawyer as soon as possible following a Slip and Fall to ensure that your legal rights are preserved.

Limitations

It is also important to be aware that since January 1, 2004, anybody who has a Slip and Fall accident has 2 years from the date of the accident in which to issue a claim. However, if you were involved in a Slip and Fall before January 1, 2004, the general limitation period is 6 years, but it may also be a much shorter time period, perhaps only as long as 3 months depending on whose property you fell on. Again it is important to contact a personal injury lawyer as soon as possible following a Slip and Fall to make sure that your rights are preserved and that you have not missed your opportunity to be compensated for your losses.

Conclusion

Aside from the notice and limitation periods, you should always try to secure a photograph of the area where the Slip and Fall occurred and the names and contact information of any persons who witnessed your Slip and Fall, since liability is often at issue when it comes to Slip and Falls.

Automobile Accident Benefits Claims

Ontario’s system of automobile insurance is a “no-fault” system. This does not mean that no one is at fault, or that compensation will not have anything to do with whose fault the accident was. What “no-fault” means is that regardless of who is to blame for the accident, any injured persons may receive some compensation, the compensation available is referred to as accident benefits. Therefore these benefits are available to any injured party in a car accident regardless of their role in the accident, be it a driver, a passenger or even a pedestrian. Accident benefits are claimed from your own insurance company, therefore a driver, passenger or pedestrian will make a claim from their respective insurance companies. An Application for Accident Benefits should be completed and submitted to your own insurance company as soon as possible following a car accident.

Standard accident benefits include: medical and rehabilitation expenses, care giver and dependent care, income replacement benefits, attendant care and housekeeping expenses. The amount of money to which you are entitled to claim is dependent upon your circumstances and is governed by the “Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule” (or SABS).

Lawsuits

If you are injured in a car accident and you are not responsible for the accident, then you may sue the responsible party or parties for compensation, thus beginning a lawsuit, also known as a tort action.

The party who is not responsible for the car accident has two years from the date of the accident, within which to commence a lawsuit. A lawsuit is commenced when a statement of claim has been issued.

Damages

The two primary heads of damages which are most commonly claimed in a lawsuit are: pain and suffering and loss of income.

Pain and Suffering

Pain and suffering refers to the injuries, both physical and psychological, sustained as a result of the car accident. The law in Ontario requires your injuries to be both permanent and serious. The amount for which you can claim for pain and suffering is also subject to a $30,000.00 deductible. This means that for damages assessed at $50,000.00 the other driver’s insurance company will only be liable to pay $20,000.00. However, the $30,000.00 deductible does not apply to claims where pain and suffering is assessed over $100,000.00.

Loss of Income

The rules regarding income loss entitle the injured parties to 80% of their net after-tax income loss up to the date of the trial and to 100% of any gross future loss of income following the trial.

How Long Does it Take to Get a Settlement?

A lawsuit can be a very long process that usually takes approximately 3 years before a settlement is reached. It is important to temper your expectations if you are seeking a quick settlement. The primary reason that the settlements take so long to reach is the amount of time it takes to get a proper prognosis from a physician with regards to your recovery from the injuries that you have suffered. This prognosis is vital to your claim. While the process may be long, your claim will not lose value as interest will accumulate on the amount that you eventually receive.

Liability: Dog Bites In Ontario

In Ontario, the law with regards to dog bites is governed by Dog Owners’ Liability Act (R.S.O. 1990, Chapter D.16) . The Dog Owners’ Liability Act, finds that it is the owner or owners of the dog who are liable and this standard of liability is held to a standard of strict liability. This standard of liability is favourable to the person who is bitten by the dog, since it need only be proved that the dog bite occurred for this standard of strict liability to apply. In spite of the strict liability imposed by Ontario law with regards to dog bites, the person who was bitten or their guardian at the time of the incident if they are a minor, may be found partially liable or contributorily negligent for the dog bite. How this occurs depends on the set of circumstances under which the dog bite occurred, however some of the more common set of circumstances are a person provoking the dog or the guardian of the minor failing to properly supervise the minor, thus contributing to the occurrence of the dog bite.

What Do I Do If Bitten By A Dog In Ontario

If you are bitten by a dog in Ontario, the first thing you will want to do is to get the name of the dog owner, thus identifying the person at fault for the dog bite incident. While this may seem like a simple task, especially if you are bitten at somebody’s home or on their premises, it can prove problematic if you are bitten in a public place and by a dog with whom you are not familiar with.
At any point following the dog bite incident it is appropriate to seek out a lawyer who is experienced with regards to dog bites. To facilitate your claim against a dog owner, it is helpful to provide your lawyer with the name and address of the dog owner, as well as to take pictures of the wounds that you suffered as a result of the dog bite incident.

Who Pays For My Injuries ?

Dog bites are generally covered by the dog owner’s home insurance policy and therefore when the dog owner is notified that the victim of the dog bite incident is seeking a claim for damages, they merely need pass the notice letter to their home insurer who will then assign an adjuster to the claim. It is worth noting that even if the dog bite incident occurs outside of the home, that the dog owner’s home insurance policy should still respond to any claims made arising out of a dog bite incident.

Other Remedies

Under the Act, a court can also order an owner to take more control over a biting dog or even get rid of the dog altogether. The consequences for an owner will depend on what the dog has done and on the owner’s conduct or lack thereof. If the court decides that the dog is a menace to the safety of the public, it can order that the dog be destroyed. Or it can allow the dog to remain alive, but order the owner to take more precautions to protect the public from the dog.
Also, the Act contains a very vaguely-worded provision that the court may order the owner of a biting dog to “take the measures specified in the order for the more effective control of the dog or for purposes of public safety.” Because of the vague wording, this means in practice that if a dog has bitten someone, a court can make all sorts of unusual orders in the name of “public safety,” even to the point of declaring the owner ineligible to own a dog for a period of time. In a recent case, R. v. Brenhouse [2004] O.J. No. 4818, the owner of two unruly dogs not only was told that the dogs would have to be destroyed, but that she would be prohibited from owning a dog for five years after that. (The court found her unfit to own a dog, in part, because she had ignored a previous order to take precautions to prevent those dogs from hurting anyone.) The order was upheld on appeal. So it appears that it is sometimes possible to make sure that a negligent dog owner will not buy another, equally uncontrolled dog.

Conclusion

The dog bite laws in Ontario are clear. Owners of dogs who bite will in the overwhelming majority of cases be liable to the victim for damages