Montreal Personal Injury Lawyer
Our Montreal personal injury lawyers can help you with your bodily injury claim resulting from an accident and to obtain compensation for damages. We deal with all manner of matters stemming from injury: legal, medical and insurance issues. It is our role as your lawyers to act in your best interest at a time when you are faced with difficulties that may result in loss of work, medical expenses, and emotional and physical stress. These are often challenging cases because the defense is often handled by insurance companies that use major law firms specialized in making reclamations as difficult as possible for the plaintiffs. Given our firm’s longstanding reputation in such matters, we were chosen to assist with the damage claims made by family of the victims of the Air India Flight 182 bombing. We were also instrumental in assisting local native workers make claims in New York for reparations after they suffered negative health consequences subsequent to their clean-up work after the destruction of the twin towers in the September eleventh, 2001 attacks. In matters of personal injury, we divide our practice into five categories: Catastrophic, Major, Significant, Minor, Motor Vehicle Injuries and Work Related Injuries. Various financing options are possible. Awards can range from global lump sum payments to periodical interim payments to any hybrid variety of these options. Major personal injury claims are often settled via judicially assisted settlement conferences.
As your lawyers we act in your
best interest at a time when
you are faced with difficulties that may
result in loss of work, medical expenses,
and emotional and physical stress.
Catastrophic Injuries
Those injuries resulting in a debilitating brain injury or a physical injury that leaves the victim permanently unable to care for themselves are considered catastrophic. These tend to be matters where total damages claimed will exceed ten million dollars ($10,000,000).
We handle these matters locally for international clients, or assist in foreign cases for local clients. We are well-accustomed to collaborating with attorneys and firms from other jurisdictions. Such matters usually involve half a dozen or more experts to ascertain the degree of physical injury, psychological impact, causation, direct losses, future loss of income and future care costs. Our firm was instrumental in obtaining the largest settlement in the history of the State of Florida for a single victim of a motor vehicle accident.
Major Injuries
Those injuries resulting in damages so great that the person will never be able to return to their former lifestyle, but will nonetheless retain some degree of autonomy are considered major. Major injuries typically tend to be matters where damages will range from one million to ten million dollars ($1,000,000 to $10,000,000).
Such matters can involve half a dozen or more experts to ascertain the degree of physical injury, psychological impact, causation, direct losses, future loss of income and future care costs. Our firm has handled and/or assisted with a wide variety of cases involving major injuries including matters such as snowmobile accidents, hydro-electric accidents, train crashes, preventable death in hospital settings and even health complications resulting from asbestos exposure.
Significant Injuries
Those injuries that have a major effect on a person’s life for a limited amount of time and then leave some permanent residual effect are considered significant. These can typically be preventable sports injuries or trip-and-fall accidents where someone other than the victim is at fault.
Damages can range from thirty thousand dollars to one million dollars ($30,000 to $1,000,000) or even higher depending upon the extent of the financial losses. Because the damages that can be claimed are lessor, it is important to determine what experts are actually critical to the case so as to minimize expenses in pursuing justice. Given our experience in the matter, we are in a position to advise you judiciously with respect to every decision that needs to be made in seeking indemnification for your damages while we manage your case from beginning to end.
Minor Injuries
Minor injuries include those that can be extremely painful and traumatizing, can completely immobilize someone for a short period of time, and even leave some minor permanent consequences such a scars, but do not have significant long-term consequences for the victim, fortunately!
These are cases where damages claimed can range from five hundred to fifty thousand dollars ($500 to $50,000). Because the expected damages are so low, it is sometimes uneconomical to hire an attorney for a full representation. At Kalman Samuels, Attorneys, we are committed to helping our clients obtain just compensation. For the most minor of injuries, we might limit our involvement to one or two simple consultations where we help you prepare your case, advise you if you actually have a case and if it is worth pursuing, and direct you to a number of free or low-cost resources to further assist you in negotiations, in making a claim in Small Claims Court, or even making a claim in regular court. For more complicated matters, we can take on the case while working together with you and using our extensive experience to keep the costs as low as possible to obtain the best results.
Motor Vehicle Accidents
Car accidents, bus accidents, and other types of motor vehicle accidents are extremely common in every jurisdiction, and Quebec is no exception. Where Quebec is exceptional, however, is that we have in this province a government-managed no-fault insurance regime known as the SAAQ (Société Assurance Automobile Québec).
This regime and its unique laws are sometimes an enigma to victims, and certainly hard to fathom for most foreign attorneys who are attempting to assist their clients who may have been injured in Quebec, or to their Quebec clients who are injured abroad. We are very familiar with the SAAQ and have dealt with them at every legal level from negotiations to requests for reviews, to challenges before the Administrative Tribunals of Quebec (TAQ), through appeals at the Superior Court level, Appeals Court level, and all the way up to the Supreme Court of Canada (very successfully, we might add!). In a single consultation, we can assist victims or other attorneys in understanding how to deal with the SAAQ and how to set realistic expectations. With a more extensive mandate, we can guide the victims or their attorneys throughout the SAAQ process of application for and receipt of indemnification for damages. In highly contested matters, we can step in act directly to challenge a SAAQ decision in the appropriate Tribunal or at Court.
Workplace Accidents and Health-Related Problems
Every worker has the right to a safe workplace environment and to be protected from occupational hazards. In Quebec, workers benefit from a no-fault regime known as the CNESST (Commission des norms, de l’équité, de la santé, et de la sécurité du travail).
The name roughly translates into: The Commission for the Norms, Equity, Health and Security in the Workplace, and the organization was formerly known as the CSST. At Kalman Samuels, Attorneys, we can assist you with claims for injuries, health issues, and even matters of work-place accidents resulting in the death of a family member. Given our experience in the domain, we can distinguish between those claims that are limited to the CNESST regime and those that fall into the regular civil law regime, and those that may touch both regimes due to the presence of multiple faulty parties. It is important that you consult an attorney early on so as to not compromise any of your rights.
Personal Injury Montreal Sample Case
Please do not underestimate the potential of a minor injury or the capabilities of our attorneys. In one case decided by the Superior Court of Quebec on 2015-03-30, a young artist had sliced through the tip of one of her fingers on a machine, resulting in damages that would ordinarily be valued at around one to two thousand dollars ($1,000 to $2,000), we were unable to negotiate a satisfactory settlement to the claim and so we chose to litigate the matter in court. In Court we obtained a victory that set a ground-breaking precedent with valuation of the injury at over one hundred dollars ($100,000). This Montreal personal injury case made jurisprudence and was the subject of many presentations at annual attorney conventions. We won on the basis that our client was an artist and the injury would have minor but permanent effect on her ability to draw, and substantially hampered her career choice and her development during her formative teen years. The morale of the story is that even for small injuries, it is best to consult a professional.
Request a Consultation with a Montreal Personal Injury Lawyer
No matter how big or small you think your case may be, it is best to speak with experts as soon as possible. Please call our Montreal personal injury law Montreal office to schedule a consultation so we can advise you properly as to what are your right and your best recourses.