Toronto Personal Injury Law Blog

Frequently, a person hurt in a car accident in Ontario also has the benefit, through their employment, of both a short term disability insurance policy (STD) and also a long term disability policy (LTD).

If the injured person starts a lawsuit for damages arising from the car accident, then what happens if they also receive monies pursuant to their LTD policy?

Is it possible to receive money twice for the same accident, otherwise known as double recovery?

Double recovery is an obvious issue that defendants and insurers take note of and dispute in each case. … Continue Reading

Dog bites and attacks are fairly common in Ontario.

Dog owners should remember two things:

1.  Buy homeowner’s (or tenant’s) insurance and, to protect yourself, ensure you have coverage in case your dog hurts someone; and

2.   Understand the potential legal liability which arises if your dog hurts someone, by reading Ontario’s Dog Owner’s Liability Act.

The Importance of Homeowner’s / Tenant’s Insurance

With the resulting lawsuit seeking damages and injury and loss arising from a dog bite, a dog owner who has homeowner’s (or tenant’s) insurance usually has the benefit of their insurance company defending them against the lawsuit and also provided coverage in the case that indemnity is required.… Continue Reading

Bougadis, Chang E-Newsletter – Winter, 2011 (March)

See our March, 2011 e-newsletter for an update on the latest on the use of the “Facebook defence” in personal injury lawsuits in Ontario.… Continue Reading

An Economist article today about BMW and VW taking stakes in a company which is producing carbon fibre, with a view to using this strong and light -weight materials in mass car production.… Continue Reading

Three separate plaintiffs suing for damages arising from a dog attack, pursuant to Ontario’s Dog Owner’s Liability Act, had three different Facebook and MySpace accounts containing approximately 1,500 pages of photographs, blogs and emails.

In the 2009 Ontario Superior Court of Justice decision of Kent v. Laverdiere, Master Haberman extensively reviewed the merits of the defendant’s motion for production of the three separate plaintiffs and their social networking profiles, totaling more than 1,500 pages.

The main issue concerning this motion was the extensive nature of production sought (and the number of hours required to properly produce this information) versus the imminent Trial date, set for four weeks after this subject motion.… Continue Reading

One of the earlier Ontario cases dealing with disclosure of a plaintiff’s Facebook account profile was the 2007 Ontario Superior Court of Justice case of Murphy v. Perger (2007) 67 C.P.C. (6th) 245, in which Madam Justice Rady ordered production of a plaintiff’s Facebook account profile, which was marked as a “private” account but had 366 Facebook “friends” attached.

The defendant, in this productions motion, did not seek access to the email communications contained on the plaintiff’s Facebook account.

The plaintiff solicitor had, prior to this motion, produced pictures of the plaintiff showing her pre-accident activities, in support of her claim post-accident of suffering from fibromyalgia and TMJ (temporomandibular joint) disorder.… Continue Reading