Burlington Post Article - March 2010. 
As of January 1, 2010 the Small Claims Court limits were increased from $10,000 to $25,000.  This now allows individuals and businesses to resolve more claims in a simple and inexpensive way.  For example, a Small Claims procedure advances much more rapidly than a typical lawsuit.  Typically under Small Claims you can have settlement conference within 3 months and a trial within 5 months, depending on the area.  Upping the limit to $25,000 simply improves access to justice for all Ontarians, including many middle class citizens who could afford a lawyer but did not retain a lawyer or did not pursue a Small Claims matter because the recovery of $10,000 simply wouldn’t justify the expense of hiring a lawyer.  Now under the $25,000 increased limit, it may make sense to hire a lawyer to pursue damages you believe you are entitled to.  In addition, you are able to claim 15% of the value of the amount claimed.  Therefore if you claim $25,000 and you recover $25,000, the contribution towards your legal fees is $3,750.00.  In most typical Small Claims matters Haber & Associates will represent you for a fixed fee.  Therefore at the end of a trial don’t expect to receive a monstrous legal bill. 

You will know exactly what you are paying the day you meet us.  If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Matt R. Lalande at Haber & Associates at (905)-639-8894 or by email at matt.lalande@haber-lawyer.com.

If you are asking this question you obviously have a serious issue that should be addressed by an Ontario Personal Injury Lawyer. We are personal injury lawyers in Hamilton, Burlington, Oakville, Milton and Toronto. We can help with this exact sort of situation.

Firstly, you will be provided accident benefit replacement income  from your own insurance company.  You will be paid up to a maximum of $400.00 weekly.  Conversely, when you sue an at-fault driver in a car accident you have the right to claim loss of past and future income over and above your accident benefit income replacement.  This means there will be a loss of income from the date of your accident to the trial date and a loss of income from the trial date to your age of retirement.  If you are now a paraplegic and can no longer function vocationally, then you will be afforded a loss of income based on assumptions put together by a proper economist in correlation with what you are trained for and what you made before the accident.

Because of the difficulty in forecasting economic loss, courts have over time made it less onerousfor  a plaintiff to prove his or her loss of income.  Normally when you sue someone, you must prove your claim on a balance of probabilities, or by 51%. A lawsuit is not like criminal law where you would need to establish beyond a reasonable doubt.  However, the burden is even less onerous to prove income loss.  What you must do is prove that there is a substantial and realistic possibility that you will lose income in the future.  This possibility however, must not be speculative and must be supported by expert opinions.  Haber & Associates would retain proper economists and accountants to provide expert and cogent evidence that there is a substantial possibility that you will lose income in the future.  What we must essentially do is prove that there is a reasonable chance of such loss occurring in the future in order to protect you and your family from permanent interruption of cash flow. 

In addition, you don’t have to prove that income loss is an all or nothing proposition.  There is also the argument of loss of opportunity, loss of chance and loss of competitive advantage.  You can be awarded loss of income for all of the above that would include contingencies in what you are able to make.  If you have been rendered paraplegic and you still have the ambition and will to work, you may be able to re-train and handle a more sedentary location.  Deductions for loss of income would be scaled down to include the contingencies of what you are able to make.  Proving economic loss is very complicated.  Proving loss of earning capacity and loss of competitive advantage is even more complicated. 

If you have been rendered less capable overall from earning income from your employment because somebody caused you an injury, or you have become less marketable or less attractive to potential employers, or if you have lost the ability to take advantage of job opportunities which might otherwise have been open to you had you not been injured, or if you view yourself as less valuable as a person capable of earning income in a competitive labour market, please contact Haber & Associates.  We will be able to assist you in recovering the right compensation for your compromised losses.

If you have any questions, please contact Personal Injury Lawyer Matt Lalande at (905)-639-8894.

I am often asked by clients whether or not damages would be higher for people that are more senior -  given that they do not have many years to live. It is understandable that if one is afflicted by a serious orthopaedic injury  the remaining years of life may not be that enjoyable. The courts in the past have been generous in formulating pain and suffering damages for people who are in the latter half of their lives by sometimes applying an informal “golden age doctrine”.  It makes sense to the common client but any good lawyer would obviously take the position this theoretical doctrine  is not an easy argument.  It is understandable that a person in their advancing years may be more seriously afflicted by the impairment in movement and ranges of motion than perhaps a person in their younger years.  The counter argument by defence lawyers, which also makes sense, is that damages should not be paid out in excess because a person is simply "not going to live long".   The rationale is that if you have a 90 year old woman that falls and breaks her pelvis - the damages should not be in the same range as a 37 year old plaintiff - the money will simple be funnelled into the estate and gifted to a beneficiary who was not injured....but will benefit from the payout.  I try and stress that it is important to bear in mind that as one advances in life one’s pleasures and activities particularly do become more limited with any substantial impairment . Acitivites are limited and any type of movement which a person can no longer undertake becomes all that more serious on that account.  How can it not be?

Therefore you can assess appropriate pain and suffering awards from two different perspectives. So what do you do? The argument would be presented by medical evidence and it would be up to a jury to decide which argument to accept.  We would normally argue that if there is no pre-exisitng injury then an orthopaedic  injury would  obviously interfere substantially with a senior citizen’s enjoyment of life during his or her remaining years. However when comparing awards, it is understandable that one must give way to the factor of age and that a younger person will suffer the loss of amenities over a much longer period of time.  The argument therefore is clear from two perspectives and the answer to this quandry  I would think is that it depends on the injury, whether anything is pre-exisinting, and the activities that the plaintiff participated in before the date of accident.  If there is a plethora of activities such as volunteer work, work at the legions, golf, walking with friends, and anything else to do with staying fit and healthy than perhaps the damages may be affected to a certain degree in comparison to the general range of damages for that same injury. If you are plagued with pre-existing debilitating conditions - the compensation for pain and suffering will be reduced accordingly.

We are personal injury lawyers in Hamilton, personal injury lawyers in Burlington, personal injury lawyers in Oakville and personal injury lawyers in Milton. If you are an elderly person that has been injured by the fault of someone else, or if your loved one is an elderly person that has been injured by the fault of someone else, please do not hesitate to contact the law offices of Haber and Associates and I would be pleased to help answer any questions that you may have.

Matt Lalande

Now that the limit for Ontario Small Claims Court will be increased to $25,000.00 Haber & Associates Litigation Lawyers will be able to assist you with your litigation. If you need a small claims trial attended to please call Matt Lalande and he will arrange for a lawyer or clerk to attend with you on your behalf to represent you, no matter what side of the case you are on. Haber & Associates will most likely assist your at your trial for a fixed fee.

As of January 1 2010 the limit for Small Claims Court will increase from $10,000 to $25,000 to allow individuals and businesses to resolve more claims in a simple and inexpensive way.  This was a fantastic idea idea. This will improve access to justice for all Ontarians.

 A few things are important to note. Claims filed in the Superior Court of Justice before January 1, 2010 for $25,000 or less will NOT automatically be transferred to the Small Claims Court. If you want a transfer of your case from the Superior Court of Justice to the Small Claims Court, after January 1, 2010, you can take steps to ask for this to happen.

What if you case has already been issued in the Superior Court and you want your case to be heard in the Small Claim? There are two ways claims can be transferred from the Superior Court of Justice to the Small Claims Court. 1) If your trial has not started and all parties in the action agree to the transfer, you can ask the local Registrar of the Superior Court of Justice to transfer the action and 2) If all parties do not agree to the transfer, you can bring a motion in the Superior Court of Justice and ask the court for permission to transfer your case. With the written consent of all parties you can ask the Registrar of the Superior Court of Justice to transfer your case, and by filling out a  requisition (Form 4E).  You would then pay the court fee to transfer the court file to the Small Claims Court ($75 fee).  If the parties do not agree to a transfer you can bring a motion in the Superior Court of Justice to ask a Judge to transfer your case to small claims.

 If you filed your claim for under $10,000 before January 1st 2010, you can change the amount and increase it up to $25,000.00. You would serve and file an amended Statement of Claim. If you don't have consent of the other parties then you would needd obtain an Order to do so and if you do have consent then you would file a request with the Clerk.  If you case is more than 30 days away you can do this. If it is less then 30 days away, you can bring a motion to ask the Court to allow a shorter time for filing and serving your Amended Plaintiff's Claim. If all the parties agree to you amending your claim, you can ask the court clerk to make an order on consent of all of the parties.

Also, despite the monetary increase, there are no increase in Court fees.

If you have debtor creditor matters or any type of litigation that you would like trial representation for please do not hesitate to call Haber & Associates and ask for Matt Lalande. He will direct you to someone at Haber & Associates that will be able to help you.

We will be able to help in the following jurisdictions:

Ontario Small Claims Court
Hamilton Small Claims Court
St-Catherines Small Claims Court
Burlington Small Claims Court
Oakville Small Claims Court
Toronto Small Claims Court
Milton Small Claims Court

 

If you are having your will done by Haber & Associates it's a good idea to know and understand a few key basic terms that you will probably hear us mention during our meeting.  Firstly, the law of wills is concerned with the validity of dispositions that will take effect upon your death and are contained in your will.  Succession is what happens to one’s estate or wealth upon his or her death.  The right to dispose of one’s assets is a qualified right meaning one cannot leave out his or her spouse or dependant children.  The law of succession concerns itself generally with all transfers of property from one generation to another.  

Probate serves as the proof to financial institutions, financials advisors, the Land Registry Office, insurance companies and other involved processes from a will that has been certified by the Superior Court of Justice and that your executor is authorized to represent your estate.  When you pass away your will gives legal authority to deal with your estate to your executor and although he/she is legally entitled to do so, when it comes time to redeem or transfer certain assets registered in your name probate is sometimes required.  This serves as proof to the examples above that your executor is authorized to represent your estate.  Sometimes you will hear the term estate administration tax.  This is the same as probate.  The actual grant of probate in Ontario is known as Certificate of Appointment of Estate Trustee with a Will.  Probate tax planning is very important especially with larger assets because probate taxes are usually calculated on the value of the gross estate.

A will is a written, typed or printed document made by the person who wishes to dispose of his/her property on his/her death and executed in the manner prescribed by the Succession Law Reform Act.  It only has effect upon one’s death.  During one’s lifetime the will is ambulatory and revocable.  It is inoperative until one dies.  

A codicil is a very common testamentary document which supplements, explains or modifies a will bearing an earlier date.  Codicils are normally only used for minor adjustments to your will.  If major changes are required, then it is customary for Haber & Associates to make a new will for you.

A testator is you.  It is a person who makes the will.  If one dies testate, it means that you have a will that will be valid and upheld after your death.  If you die intestate it means that you do not have a will or it is invalid.  Intestacy is much more expensive and complicated.  The Succession Law Reform Act applies a “statutory will” directing who is entitled to the estate.  A personal representative of the deceased is either an executor (estate trustee with a will) or an administrator (estate trustee without a will).  An executor is a named person in the will or codicil to administer the estate, while an administrator is a person appointed by the Court to administer the estate of a person who died intestate or without a will.  

A Certificate of Estate Trustee is a document issued by the Court after death which authenticates the Office of the Estate Trustee.  If an executor proves the will he/she receives letters probate (Certificate of Appointment of Estate Trustee with a Will), which will serve as evidence to the world the executor’s title.  If an administrator proves the will, he/she will receive letters of administration (Certificate of Appointment of Estate Trustee without a Will).  On intestacy persons who are entitled to share in the Estate are determined by statute.

The above are some key terms that are good to know when you make a will.  If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Matt Lalande by phone or email to discuss the drafting of your will.