Toronto Personal Injury Law Blog

Litigation arising from a motor vehicle accident tends to be difficult for all parties involved, particularly with the stress of a lawsuit ‘hanging’ over your life. Sometimes you just wish that the other side would ‘see the light’, be reasonable and agree to resolve the lawsuit.

In some instances, litigation becomes fairly heated between the parties and counsel involved, so that both sides are simply not prepared to negotiate or compromise any further. The limit has been reached and there is no sense in more discussion.… Continue Reading

If your lawsuit is not moving forward in an expeditious manner, the defendants can bring a motion to dismiss for delay, as occurred in this recent case: Mayhew v. Paddon + York Inc., 2014 ONSC 57 (CanLII).

In this case, the allegations against the plaintiffs included failure to comply with several previous Court orders, as well as a delay in answering undertakings arising from Discovery.

Judge Morawetz lays out the test to consider as follows:

[28] The court’s authority to dismiss an action for delay is found in Rule 24.01 of the Rules of Civil Procedure, R.R.O.… Continue Reading

A man and woman were critically injured in Toronto in a collision between a car, motorcycle and pedestrian on the evening of April 6. The car accident took place near the intersection of St. Clair Avenue East and Yonge Street about 5:30 p.m. According to witnesses, just before the accident, three motorcycles were headed north on Yonge Street.

A vehicle headed south was trying to make a left turn as the three motorcycles approached the intersection with Pleasant Boulevard. A police sergeant said that the motorist might or might not have seen the oncoming motorcycles.… Continue Reading

A young teen at an Ottawa high school was transported to a medical facility after he suffered severe injuries when he became trapped by a motorized dividing wall in the gym. Emergency personnel responded to the scene shortly after noon on March 27 where they found educators with the unconscious child, a seventh-grader, after he was pinned by the partition.

Paramedics were able to revive the unconscious 13-year-old student and rushed him to a trauma unit after his pulse was restarted and he began breathing again.… Continue Reading

In a slip and fall case against a city / municipality in Ontario, there is a difficult standard of care for plaintiffs to prove against the City in respect of the gross negligence standard. It is typical for a plaintiff to sue both the City and the actual contractor company hired by the City to perform the snow and ice clearing work.

In a recent decision, an interesting case whereby the plaintiff chose not to sue the contractor, thereby leaving it to the City to commence a Third Party Claim against the contractor.… Continue Reading

The MMS has been the subject of attack by the plaintiff’s Bar and this application was one attempt to obtain a Court decision on the enforceability of some of those provisions: Silveira v. Ontario (Transportation), 2014 ONSC 65 (CanLII).

The MMS law sets out the legal responsibilities of municipalities for such issues as snow clearing, fixing potholes and other issues: Minimum Maintenance Standards for Municipalities Act 2002 and 2010.

In this application, the attack was on the ability of the municipality to use the MMS to defend against a car accident which occurred during the winter, in which snow and ice is alleged to have caused and/or contributed to the accident.… Continue Reading