Thank you! Thank you!
We are incredibly proud to announce that Mckiggan Hebert has been included in Canadian Lawyer magazine’s list of Top 10 Personal Injury Boutique law firms in Canada.
In fact, we are the only law firm east of Ontario to be included in this list!
While the road forward may be challenging, it is important for families and caregivers to know what to expect when it comes to living with a brain injury. Returning home after sustaining a brain injury—no matter how severe—can be a complex and emotional experience. For many, returning home is a sign of triumph after rehabilitation, and since home is a place of safety and security, is where they find their old selves once again.
Brain damage can result in confusion, memory loss, poor
organizational skills, disinhibition and poor reasoning skills and judgment. Individuals who have been affected by a
traumatic brain injury may appear to have changed dramatically. It is important
that friends, family members and caregivers understand that the individual does
not want to feel or act differently than they did before the injury.
As brain injury lawyers, McKiggan Hebert has represented hundreds of survivors and helped their families understand the impact that a traumatic brain injury can have. With this in mind, we have compiled a basic list of things that families and caregivers should know when a brain injury survivor returns home, prepares to return to work and wishes to return to a normal life.
Seriously injured car crash victims will now receive less money in their pockets after trial for loss of future income damages claims given the December 10, 2018 Nova Scotia Court of Appeal decision in Sparks v Holland.
In the past, certain types of income replacement benefits received by an injured Plaintiff were not deducted from a Plaintiff’s award for loss of future income. These were referred to as collateral benefits.
In the past, Canada Pension Plan Disability [CPPd] benefits were not deducted from future income loss awards. Unfortunately, the highest Court in Nova Scotia has ruled that future CPPd are not a collateral benefit and are indeed deductible from loss of future earning capacity and loss of future income damages awards made at Trial.
No matter how severe a car accident may seem in the initial follow-up moments, suffering from whiplash and whiplash associated disorders (WAD) can quickly escalate what appears at first to be a minor incident into a serious medical emergency.
“Whiplash” is the common term for an injury resulting from an abrupt back-and-forth flexing of the neck. This type of neck pain can vary tremendously individually, but in some severe cases the symptoms of whiplash can include things like harsh back pain, neck sprains, muscle spasms, shoulder pain, concussions, neck stiffness, chronic pain and much more.
These very painful and disruptive symptoms can greatly affect a car accident or sports injury victim’s quality of life, overall ability to provide an income for one’s self and family, and can even lead to emotional injuries like depression and social isolation in some extreme cases. No one should ever have to live with this kind of pain and suffering that can result from a whiplash injury — especially when the injury is caused directly by someone else’s negligent actions.
November 16th marked the first substantial winter snow fall in the Halifax area for the 2018 winter season. I awoke, looked out my front window and sadly noted snow covered streets with heavy, wet snowflakes falling. The radio forecast called for the snow to turn into ice pellets and later into rain. A very greasy day awaited and I suspected the roads would be very slippery.
As I set out for the drive to the office I prepared mentally for the trek ahead reminding myself to drive cautiously, approach intersections a bit slower than normal, pump my brakes if I started to slide and to make sure I looked twice at every car around me before proceeding into an intersection.
I still knew, however, that despite all of my caution it was going to be “the other guy” I had to be mindful of… the guy who would make no mental driving precautions, who would approach every intersection as if the pavement was bare, who would tailgate me and perhaps even try to pass me on a two lane street if he perceived I was driving too slowly.
As summer moves into fall, many seasonal changes take place. Children return to school, days are not as warm or long, leaves change color and we prepare for the long winter ahead.
Change is a constant and quite often, is for the good. The positive aspect of change can be seen in recent developments implemented by HRM and the Provincial government aimed at protecting pedestrians and motorists in Nova Scotia.
HRM statistics reveal in the first eight months of 2018 there were 120 vehicle-pedestrian collisions in HRM with 61 percent of them happening in a crosswalk. In an effort to improve safety for these pedestrians, HRM has installed what they refer to as “advanced pedestrian lights” at six high-pedestrian traffic intersections in the City – five in Halifax and one in Dartmouth.
Allowing Pedestrians a Head Start
These new lights came into effect on Thursday, October 11, 2018. How they work is the green pedestrian “walking man” signal comes on for several seconds before the green traffic light changes permitting vehicle traffic to proceed ahead through an intersection or turn. In this way, pedestrians are given a head start to proceed forward into the crosswalk and establish their presence. Vehicle drivers will see the pedestrians more readily and allow them to complete their right-of-way crossing. HRM advises they will monitor this initiative and if it works to reduce collisions HRM will add more of these advanced pedestrian lights at other intersections in the City.
In a landmark victory for 7 year-old plaintiff Cullan Chisholm, Dr. Alison Ball and the Guysborough Antigonish Strait Health Authority have agreed to pay a total of $6 million in damages to Chisholm in what has been reported as the largest personal injury settlement in Nova Scotia’s legal history.
Represented by McKiggan Hebert’s John McKiggan, the case is significant because “it goes a long way to recognizing the very significant harm and huge associated costs that go with caring for a catastrophically injured child.”
“It’s fair to say that physicians, nurses are human. We all make mistakes,” John says. “But when someone makes a mistake that violates the standard of care — in other words when someone makes a mistake that was preventable — then they should be held accountable for that and that’s why we brought the claim.”
A landmark settlement in a case to compensate LGBTQ members of Canada’s military, RCMP and civil service who were investigated and/or discharged due to their sexual orientation was recently approved by Federal Court Justice Martine St-Louis on June 18, 2018.
The terms of settlement, first proposed in November 2017, finally puts a decades-long battle between LGBTQ-identifying members of the Canadian military and oppressive policy to rest, as well as opens the door to forgiveness and equality to all current and former service members.
The Settlement
This morning, a story was featured on CBC’s Information Morning by legislative reporter Jean LaRoche on the province’s lack of action on the promised Acquired Brain Injury Strategy.
Here’s a link to the story on the CBC website.
The report was informative and raises some serious issues about the lack of services for brain injury survivors in Nova Scotia.
What is a statute of limitations?
Every province in Canada has a law (statute) that sets time limits for how long a plaintiff has to file an injury claim with appropriate insurance companies and in court. This type of legislation is generally referred to as a statute of limitations, although it goes by a different name in various Canadian provinces. In Nova Scotia it is called the Limitation of Actions Act, and it’s important for everyone to understand how this plays a factor within every injury case and insurance claim
In September of 2015, the legislature significantly changed Nova Scotia’s Limitation of Actions Act. The changes significantly reduced the amount of time that plaintiffs have to file various injury claims. You can read more about it here.
The changes to the statute of limitations, in particular the shortened limitation periods, raised the potential that injury claims that wouldn’t have been barred under the litigation process standards within the old act to potentially run out of time under the new Limitation of Actions Act.
