Recently, Ontario’s Attorney General, the Honourable Doug Downey, notified Ontario lawyers that his office is considering eliminating juries for most civil matters. This notice to the profession has been hotly debated in the legal community, but this issue should be important to every citizen in Ontario who one day may rely on our justice system.
Income Loss Claims Given that general damage awards are capped in Canada, income loss claims can often make up a sizeable portion of damage awards. Income loss quantification is usually straightforward, particularly when a Plaintiff has had a settled line of work over an established period of time. If they are no longer able to continue working due to a personal injury, their past income …
Recently, Justice Denny Thomas in Edmonton allowed television cameras inside the courtroom to broadcast his long-awaited decision in the Travis Vader murder case. His decision to allow cameras has stirred up the debate on whether or not to allow cameras into Canadian courtrooms. Broadcasting inside courtrooms is nothing new in the United States but is extremely rare in Canada. Many of us remember the O.J. Simpson trial …
The Ontario government has announced plans to increase fines for distracted driving, a move that the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association welcomes. OTLA Director of Public Affairs, John Karapita, is pictured in a group above with Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca (center), MPPs Eleanor McMahon, Kathryn McGarry, Mike Colle and Han Dong, along with OSL President Brian Patterson and many more road safety partners, during the …
Tomorrow is Election Day in Ontario and many of us will be off to the polls to cast our votes. On June 3, 2014, we saw the election debate between the three major party leaders. While a number of issues were addressed, including scandal, the deficit, and job creation, auto insurance reform was not one of them. It is unfortunate that the topic did not …
With Ontarians heading to the ballot boxes in less than a month, people are paying heightened attention to what the parties and candidates have to say on issues they care about. For many people, that means education, health care, jobs and environmental issues. Unfortunately, tort rights, thresholds and deductibles are probably not even on the radar, and understandably so. The reality is that most people …
