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The vehicle owner and driver that has purchased any car insurance policy in Ontario can be assured of the receipt of certain benefits. On the other hand, the same person stands in danger of being deprived of one specific benefit.
Benefits given to anyone involved in a motor vehicle accident in Ontario:
• Compensation for loss of income
• Coverage of expenses for medical care
• Coverage of rehabilitation costs
• Money for attendant care
• Money for housekeeping costs
The above benefits get delivered to all involved in the accident, regardless of who has been found at fault. Note that there is no benefit for pain and suffering. Ontario categorizes the injuries suffered by those that request the available benefits. Some of the injuries are minor in nature or are categorized as non-catastrophic. While other injuries maybe catastrophic injuries.
What are some examples of a catastrophic injury?
• One that causes the injured party to become blind;
• One that results in the loss of a limb or limbs;
• One that causes the injured party to suffer what is known as a traumatic brain injury (TBI);
• One that paralyzes portions of the injured party’s body.
One that impairs more than 55% of the injured party’s body; that would include impairment of a major part of the body due to scar tissue, as might form during the healing of a burn.
One that impairs the mental or the behavioral functions of the injured party. A report from a psychiatrist would have to offer proof of the victim’s inability to carry out the expected mental and behavioral functions.
In Ontario the victim that has suffered a catastrophic injury cannot receive a benefit that exceeds $1,000,000. Hence, such a victim typically needs to hire a lawyer, when the suffered losses exceed $1,000,000. That lawyer can undertake one of 2 different actions.
That attorney might decide to work on maximizing the available benefits. Such an action would be taken if maximization of things like the housekeeping benefits could be used to obtain an amount that covered the entirety of the victim’s losses.
Alternatively, that same Personal Injury Lawyer in Brantford might decide to sue the party that caused the terrible accident. It may be that more than one person could be held responsible for what happened. The attorney’s skills and experience should aid identification of those that might be pointed to as the ones at fault for the terrible accident.
The person sued would still receive the benefits that get awarded to anyone involved in an accident. Yet that same person could be the target of a plaintiff’s lawsuit. Ontario has that unusual approach to the handling of motor vehicle accidents because no insurance policy in the province awards benefits for pain and suffering.