Halifax Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

Nova Scotia Government Passes Law to Protect Insurance Company Profits

In 2003 Nova Scotia passed the Automobile Insurance Reform Act (AIRA) to protect the profits of the insurance industry at the expense of innocent accident victims.

"Minor Injury" Cap on Compensation

AIRA limits (or caps) the amount of damages that an accident victim can receive for non-pecuniary damages , what is typically referred to as compensation for pain and suffering, for "minor injuries" to a maximum of $2500.00!

In other words, if you have a minor injury, as defined by the AIRA law, the most compensation you can receive for your pain and suffering is $2500.00.

There are many reasons why the insurance company may claim that you have a minor injury.

Reason # 1

Your injury isn't "permanent"

The AIRA law defines a minor injury as every injury that does NOT result in a:

...permanent serious impairment of an important bodily function...

So the first reason the insurance company may say that you have a "minor injury" is because your injury isn't permanent.

That covers a lot of injuries. Think about it: bruises go away, torn muscles repair themselves, broken bones heal. There are few injuries that last forever.

Does Permanent Mean Forever?

In some cases (amputations) it may be obvious that the injury will last forever. But for most injuries the only way to know for sure that your injury is/was permanent is to wait until you die. If you still had the injury when you died, then the injury was truly permanent.

So does that mean you have to wait until you die before you can prove your injury is permanent?

Fortunately that isn't the case.

Various court decisions have considered what the definition of the word permanent means when it comes to personal injury claims.

A victims injuries will be considered to be permanent where there is a “substantial possibility” that the injury will continue into the future: Skinner v. Goulet.

"Permanent" means lasting into the indefinite future without any end limit: Bos v. James

How Do I Prove My Injury Is Permanent?

So the first thing you have to do to prove that you do NOT have a minor injury if provide proof that your injury is "permanent". How do you do that? By having your doctor carefully document the nature and extent of your injuries so that he or she can write a report confirming that there is a "substantial possibility" that your injury will continue into the "indefinite future" without any certain end limit.

There are a number of other reasons that the insurance company may say you have a minor injury, and claim that your compensation should be capped at a maximum of $2500.00. I will cover them all in future posts.

Continue reading "Why the Insurance Company Says you have a "Minor Injury": Reason #1" »

Unintentional injury is the leading cause of death for children in Canada.

Safe Kids Canada has released a research report this week that showed that residential streets may be more dangerous for our children that we think. According to the study, which was released this week a child hit by a car travelling at 50 km/h has an 80 per cent chance of being killed!

Thousands of Children Injured or Killed in Pedestrian Accidents:

Child - pedestrian accidents are a leading cause of death for Canadian children. More than 2,000 children are seriously injured each year in child pedestrian accidents each year! Sadly, almost 30 children are killed in pedestrian accidents every year.

Intersections Dangerous:

Most child pedestrian accidents happen while the child was crossing the street in an intersection.

Injuries Happen Close to Home:

It may come as some surprise that many of these serious injuries and deaths happen within just 5 kilometres of the children’s home.

Slow Down and Save Lives:

The study found that reducing vehicle speed results in a huge decrease in the number of child injuries and fatalities. A child hit by a car traveling at 30 km/h, has up to a 95 per cent chance of surviving.

The report calls for legislation reducing speed limits in residential neighbourhoods to a maximum of 30 KM (from the current 50 KM).

As a personal injury lawyer for the past 18 years I have represented hundreds of children who have been seriously injured in car-pedestrian accidents. Even more tragic are the cases where a child has been killed by a driver who was speeding, or just not paying attention.

I would encourage anyone who is interested in child safety to send a copy of the Safe Kids Canada news release to their local MLA.

Continue reading "Slow Down and Save a Childs Life!" »

Injury is the leading cause of death and disability among children and adolescents in
Canada. A new report from the Canadian Institute for Health Information indicates that the number of children injured each year in Canada has declined steadily over recent years.

The rate of child injury in 2005–2006 was 36.7 per 10,000 persons, compared to 40.6 per 10,000 persons, in 2001–2002.

The authors of report suggest that the decrease in pediatric injuries could be due to a variety of
factors, including:

Improved injury-prevention programs;
Changing practice patterns with changing hospital admission criteria;
Administrative changes; and
Legislation designed to target child safety concerns.

The leading cause of injury was unintentional falls (37%) with double the number of injuries of the second leading cause of injury, car accidents (18%).

It is perhaps not surprising that car accidents resulted in more serious injuries. The study reports that falls resulted in 24,433 hospital days with an average of 2.3 days required for treatment. Whereas car accidents resulted in 32,118 hospital days with an average hospital stay of 6 days required for treatment.

The leading cause of injury that resulted in death among children and adolescents under age 20 years was car accidents (55.5%).

While the trend towards fewer injuries is encouraging, more study is needed to identify the specific reasons for the decrease so that governments and hospitals can determine how to most effectively spend limited health care and trauma prevention dollars.

You can read the whole report here.

Driver fatigue is a factor in 20% of fatal car crashes and the cause of more than 400 deaths due to car accidents every year according to a new report from the Highway Safety Roundtable.

The study also reported that an alarming 20 percent of Canadians admit to falling asleep at the wheel at least once over the last year.

I was actually a little surprised by the reports findings. In my practice representing people who have suffered injury as a result of motor vehicle accidents, I would have said driver fatigue was an issue in close to 50% of all serious car crashes.

The Canada Safety Council has posted a website: Tips to Avoid Drowsy Driving that is worth a look.

Dangerous drivers suffering from alcohol abuse, cardiac disease and neurologic disorders are not being reported by their doctors; and doctors may be committing medical malpractice for failing to comply with provincial laws.

A recent report in the medical journal Open Medicine found that between 1996 and 2001 37% of drivers admitted to a trauma unit with injuries from car accidents had a reportable medical condition that made them unfit to drive.

Most of the patients (85%) had seen a doctor in the year before the crash, and 14 per cent had even seen a doctor a week before their crash. But only three per cent of these had been reported to the Ontario Ministry of Transportation.

The author of the report Dr. Donald Redelmeier of Toronto's Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, was quoted by CTV as saying:

"There's sort of a historical tradition where a lot of physicians didn't believe road safety was a part of public health...Globally, motor vehicle crashes account for almost 1 million fatalities, far eclipsing malaria for the first time in the history of the planet."

All Canadian provinces and territories have enacted some form of legislation requiring doctors to report patients who are believed to be unfit to drive a motor vehicle. In some jurisdictions, the duty is mandatory; in others, it is discretionary. In either case, the duty to report is an exception to the normal rules in respect of doctor-patient confidentiality.

The authors suggest a number of reasons why doctors may not be following the law requiring them to report unfit drivers:

Uncertainty as to whether a patients impairment is serious enough to report;

Concerns over how their patients will react;

Being too busy;

Lack of training; and

The view that road safety isn't a medical problem.

Based on their findings, the authors conclude that mandatory reporting in Ontario "does not achieve its stated purpose."

Innocent victims of car accident have filed personal injury claims against doctors for failing to report unfit drivers who subsequently caused car accidents. See for example Toms v. Foster

Whatever the reason, a doctors failure to report can have serious consequences, not only for the innocent victims of car accidents caused by unfit drivers, but to the doctors who fail to report them.

A judge has fined a Nova Scotia man $700 for driving drunk last spring in an incident that killed his best friend. Jonathan Savoy initially faced four charges, which included impaired driving causing the death of his friend, David MacDonald.

The more serious charge was dropped in a plea bargain deal that involved Savoy pleading guilty to impaired driving, taking a car without permission and driving while suspended.

Susan MacAskill of Mothers Against Drunk Driving said she was appalled with the judge's decision.

"Somebody's dead and nobody seems to be held responsible..."

In 2004, it was estimated that 3,013 individuals were killed in motor vehicle crashes in Canada. MADD Canada estimates that at a minimum 1,157 of these fatalities involved impaired driving. Further, MADD Canada estimates that approximately 68,245 individuals were injured in impaired driving crashes (187 per day).

A $700.00 fine for a drunk driving crash that killed someone. Appalling doesn't begin to describe the situation. It appears I am not the only one that shares that opinion.