When you are involved in an accident caused by somebody else, it is still you who is left with the pain and the medical expenses and the long road to recovery. In a fair world, you would be fairly compensated for these inflicted consequences for which you carry no fault. However, this is not a fair world.
The Cap On Damages
Ever since 1978, the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that public policy needs to put a cap on compensation for all accident victims. As a result, even in a case of a guaranteed lifetime of suffering, victims cannot be awarded damages that exceed the $360,000 cap. Back in the day, the cap was set at $100,000, but as a result of inflation, has been raised to the aforementioned $360,000.
Statutory Deductible
As if the cap weren’t enough, the law has also decided to further kick accident victims when they are already down by adjusting the automatic statutory deductible to inflation. This means that any victim who is awarded less than $124,000 for pain and suffering, will automatically receive a deduction of $37,000. As a result, the defendant’s insurance company will safe on $37,000 that should have gone to the plaintiff.
Unfortunately, the biggest portion of motor vehicle collision cases will settle for less than $124,000, no matter how serious the plaintiff’s injuries are. As a result, insurance companies get to safe on a bunch of money while accident victims are left to dry out in the rain.
The Serious And Permanent Injury Threshold
Since the above listed ways of ruining accident victims’ lives are apparently not enough for Ontario law, there is yet another limitation legally set for all plaintiffs: the serious and permanent injury threshold. If you wish to obtain compensation for your pain and suffering in Ontario, you will first need to prove that your injuries are severe enough. This needs to be done by obtaining certain medical evidence which is oftentimes a costly affair that needs to be paid for out of their own pocket and at their own risk. If not proven successfully, the plaintiff will be left with zero compensation. It is good to talk with your personal injury lawyer in Leamington before you actually file the claim.
The system of compensation is deeply interwoven with faults and unfairness toward accident victims whose lives have already been thrown off track by no means of their own. An outside party was negligent and left them with injuries that need to be treated and a road to recovery paved with medical bills, pain, and frustration, and yet the system doesn’t seem to believe that they were owed compensation.