There are over 17,000 individuals in Toronto who can call themselves a Toronto attorney.  Each Toronto attorney typically has his or her own specialty.  The day of the general practitioner is not as it once was (and is slowly fading away).  In fact, specialization is a preferred strategy to earn above-average returns in any given industry.  Besides, think of how hard it would be for a lawyer who ‘does it all’ to keep up to date with the changing laws in every given legal area.  It’s way too difficult and that’s where negligence cases may arise.

In any event, I thought I’d spend some time discussing the various types of Toronto attorneys that you can come across on a day-to-day basis.  Here’s the first breakdown of types of Toronto attorneys (please keep in mind that this list of the types of lawyers out there is not exhaustive):

• Toronto Real Estate Attorneys: help you buy and sell residential, investment, farm, cottage, recreational, condominium, and cooperative properties.  They also you get a mortgage financing and refinancing as well.

• Toronto Personal Injury Attorneys: help you litigate, settle, or otherwise resolve claims arising from:
  • accident benefits claims
  • dog bites
  • disability claims
  • medical malpractice
  • motor vehicle accidents
  • negligence actions
  • personal injury claims
  • product liability
  • slip and falls

• Toronto Business Attorneys: help you to incorporate and organize, merge/amalgamate, and dissolve your business.  They can help prepare, review, interpret, revise, negotiate, litigate, and resolve the following business documents:
  • shareholder agreement
  • partnership agreement
  • joint venture agreement
  • franchise agreement
  • commercial leases
  • business acquisitions
  • regulatory compliance
  • constructions contracts
  • employment agreements

• Toronto Wills and Estates Attorneys: they offer services from a basic will and powers of attorney  to more complicated tax-planning structures, such as inter-vivos trusts and estates freezes.  They can also help personal representatives in the administration and distribution of estate assets.  Finally, they can litigate on behalf of beneficiaries or the estate trustee on issues such as mental capacity of the testator, validity of a will, etc.

• Toronto Family Attorneys: they can help you with your marriage breakup by drafting a separation agreement.  They can also help you with issues such as divorce, spousal and child support, child custody, possession of the matrimonial home, and the equalization of net family property.
  

• Toronto Criminal Defense Attorneys: they can help represent you against government bodies that have charged you with criminal or provincial offences (e.g. careless driving), including:
  • DUI (driving under the influence)
  • assault
  • sexual assault
  • fraud
  • theft

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Toronto law firms can help answer your legal questions, facilitate your transaction (e.g. business, real estate, wills and estates, family, etc.) or even represent you in court.  To find a Toronto lawyer or law firm, go to Dynamic Lawyers and make a post.  It’s free and anonymous and Toronto lawyers and law firms will respond to you with information and quotes for you to compare.

Here are some of the different types of law that Toronto law firms can assist you in:

• Accidents and Injuries: Involved in an accident where you suffered personal injury?
• Business: Need corporate or commercial agreements? Need to have a lawyer help you do a transaction?
• Charities and Not-For-Profit: Need to establish a Not-For-Profit corporation or obtain charity status?
• Civil Litigation – Higher Court: Have a serious legal claim that needs to be litigated in the Superior Court, Divisional Court, etc.?
• Civil Litigation – Small Claims Court: Have a legal claim (e.g. breach of contract, negligence, etc.) for less than $10,000?
• Constitutional / Human Rights and Freedoms: Challenging a law or government action / inaction?
  Criminal: Charged with a criminal offence? Appealing a conviction?
• Employment and Labour: Need an employment agreement? Unjustly terminated? Need to know your rights?
• Family: Going through a separation or divorce? Fighting to get custody or access? Dealing with spousal and child support?
• Government: Need to lobby the government? Need to resolve a dispute with a government agency?
• Highway Traffic Tickets: Charged with speeding or DUI? Need to fight traffic tickets?
• Immigration: Need to immigrate to Canada? Fighting against deportation?
• Insurance: Having difficulties with your Insurance company?.
• Intellectual Property: Need to register a copyright or trademark? Need help with a patent?
• Landlord and Tenant: Need a resolve a dispute? Need to know your rights?.
• Notary Public / Commissioner: Need to notarize or commission your documents?
• Real Estate: Need someone to facilitate your residential or commercial purchase, sale, or lease?
• Tax: Need help structuring your tax affairs? Need help resolving tax disputes with the Canada Revenue Agency?
• Wills, Estates and Trusts: Need a will? Need to update your will? Find out why having an up-to-date will is a must.

Try to consult with a couple of Toronto law firms and Toronto attorneys until you’re comfortable with whom you’re speaking with.  Toronto law firms differ in size, location, expertise, and reputation.  Go to Dynamic Lawyers and save time and money finding the right Toronto law firms and Toronto attorneys who specialize in the legal area you require!

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If you have been in an accident or suffered an injury, you may need to find a Toronto Personal Injury Lawyer.  Go to Dynamic Lawyers and make a post.

This is not legal advice.  This information is being provided for educational and informational purposes only.  If you require a lawyer, you should seek professional help (e.g. by making a post on Dynamic Lawyers).

In this blog, I’ll be discuss the basis elements of the law of negligence in Ontario as it related to personal injuries and accidents.  Please bear in mind, however, that the law of personal injury encompasses more than negligence and tort law: there are statutory benefit regimes, breaches of contract, breaches of consumer protection legislation, etc.  But, for the purposes of this post, I’ll narrow my focus to the law of personal injury as it pertains to suing a party for negligence.

Duty of Care
Not everyone who is careless will be liable.  It first depends on whether that party owed the injured party a duty to take care in all of the circumstances.  This so-called “duty of care” is a legal obligation on an party to adhere to a standard of care (discussed next), the breach of which may create liability for that party.  One example of the duty of care in everyday life is the duty that motorists owe to other motorists on the road.  Another example is the duty that care givers owe to their patients.  Basically, for a duty of care to exist and impose liability on a party,the risk of injury must be reasonably foreseeable to the specific injured party.  To determine if a duty of care exists, Ontario court may (among other factors) look at how close the parties were to each other, whether such a duty exists in other jurisdictions, and whether it makes sense for other reasons (e.g. economic, fairness, efficiency, deterrent, etc.) to impose such a duty.

Standard of Care
Once a duty of care has been found to exist on a party, their conduct (i.e. actions or omissions) will be examined to determine if they met the standard of care required of them in the circumstances.  Generally, parties are held to a standard of care that would be expected of a reasonable person of ordinary intelligence and prudence in their circumstances.  This means that children will typically be held to lower standards while doctors will be held to higher standards (and specialists will be held to even higher standards).  In the commercial context, things like industry standards and customs will be relevant in determining whether a party has breached the standard of care.

Causation
Even if a party owed a duty of care and breached the standard of care required, they may not be liable if their negligence did not cause the injuries complained of.  The general rule in Ontario is: ‘but for’ the party’s negligence (in other words, if the party’s negligence did not exist), would the injured party have suffered his/her/its damages and injuries?  Here, the injured party must demonstrate that, more likely than not, the party’s conduct was necessary for the occurrence of the injuries.  Hence, if it cannot be ascertained as probable that the party’s negligence caused the injuries complained of, then the negligent party may not be ultimately liable.

Remoteness
Even if a party owed a duty of care, breaches the standard of care, and caused the complaining party’s damages, that party may still not be liable if those damages were too remote.  This means that the negligent party is only liable for damages so long as the type of injury suffered was foreseeable as a probable consequence of the negligent act or was reasonably foreseeable as a real possibility.  The idea behind this rule is that it would be unfair to make a negligent party bear all of the consequences of his/her/it’s carelessness – especially when a moment’s inadvertence results in trivial or freakish consequences.

Defences
Even if a party is negligent (based on all of the factors outlined above being met), they may still have a defence that will either limit or negate their liability entirely.  Such defence include contribution (i.e. the injured party contributed to their own injuries), voluntary assumption of risk (e.g. the injured party had signed a waiver of liability in favour of the other party) or illegality (e.g. the injured party was doing something illegal at the time).

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Please note that the information provided herein is not legal advice and is provided for informational and educational purposes only.   If you need legal advice with respect to failure to warn, you should seek professional assistance (e.g. make a post on Dynamic Lawyers).  We have Toronto personal injury lawyers registered on the website who can assess your situation and, if need be, represent you in litigation or alternative dispute resolution.

With warmer weather around the corner, I thought I’d take some time to discuss the duty which Ontario property owners have to warn people of the dangers of diving in bodies of water on their premises.  Hopefully, property owners will be more aware of such a duty (i.e. assuming there is one in light of all the relevant factors and circumstances) and take reasonable and necessary precautions to prevent future injuries and deaths from happening in Ontario waters.

Section 3 of Ontario’s Occupier’s Liability Act provides that:

(1) An occupier of premises owes a duty to take such care as in all the circumstances of the case is reasonable to see that persons entering on the premises…are reasonably safe while on the premises.

Courts have found that there is no duty to warn of a danger which is so obvious and apparent that anyone would be aware of it.  Courts have stated that property owners  are required to exercise care against dangers that are sufficiently probably to be included in the category of contingencies which should normally be foreseen (see for example, Alchimowicz v. Schram and Woods v. Ontario (Minister of Natural Resources).

In determining whether a duty to warn exists, courts from various jurisdictions have taken into consideration a number of factors, including (but not limited to):

• The injured party’s age;
• Whether the injured party was inebriated from excessive consumption of alcohol;
• The injured party’s previous swimming/diving experience;
• The injured party’s familiarity with the water and surrounding area;
• The particular risk posted by the injured party’s activity (e.g. shallow dive from a standing position, diving off of a rock platform, etc.);
• The obviousness/awareness of the danger to both the injured party and the property owner;
• The practicability and cost of post warning signs;
• The injured party’s view of the bottom of the water prior to diving;
• The time at which the injured party dove (i.e. was the bottom of the water visible, was the property open to the public at the time?);
• The time of year (i.e. was the water cold, did the water level fluctuate, was the property open to the public at the time?); and
• Whether the injured party had been previously warned by experiences, signs, people, etc. about the depth of the water or the consequences of diving.

Once again, if you have been involved in an accident or injury that involved diving into water, you should consult a Toronto personal injury lawyer to determine if you have a case and seek representation to litigate/resolve the matter.

written by admin \\ tags: 's liability, accident, accidents, court, diving s, duty to warn, failure to warn, injuries, injury, lawyer, lawyers, litigants, ontario property, personal injury lawyers, property owners, signage, swimming diving, toronto

Types of lawyers.  There are lots in Toronto (as in every major city across North America).  Each has his or her own specialty.  The day of the general practitioner is not as it once was (and is slowly fading away).  In fact, specialization is a preferred strategy to earn above-average returns in any given industry.  Besides, think of how hard it would be for a lawyer who ‘does it all’ to keep up to date with the changing laws in every given legal area.  It’s way too difficult and that’s where negligence cases may arise.

In any event, I thought I’d spend some time discussing the various types of lawyers that you can come across on a day-to-day basis.  Here’s the first breakdown of types of lawyers in Toronto (please keep in mind that this list of the types of lawyers out there is not exhaustive):

• Toronto Real Estate Lawyers: help you buy and sell residential, investment, farm, cottage, recreational, condominium, and cooperative properties.  They also you get a mortgage financing and refinancing as well.

• Toronto Personal Injury Lawyers: help you litigate, settle, or otherwise resolve claims arising from:
  • accident benefits claims
  • dog bites
  • disability claims
  • medical malpractice
  • motor vehicle accidents
  • negligence actions
  • personal injury claims
  • product liability
  • slip and falls

• Toronto Business lawyers: help you to incorporate and organize, merge/amalgamate, and dissolve your business.  They can help prepare, review, interpret, revise, negotiate, litigate, and resolve the following business documents:
  • shareholder agreement
  • partnership agreement
  • joint venture agreement
  • franchise agreement
  • commercial leases
  • business acquisitions
  • regulatory compliance
  • constructions contracts
  • employment agreements

• Toronto Wills and Estates Lawyers: they offer services from a basic will and powers of attorney  to more complicated tax-planning structures, such as inter-vivos trusts and estates freezes.  They can also help personal representatives in the administration and distribution of estate assets.  Finally, they can litigate on behalf of beneficiaries or the estate trustee on issues such as mental capacity of the testator, validity of a will, etc.

• Toronto Family Lawyers: they can help you with your marriage breakup by drafting a separation agreement.  They can also help you with issues such as divorce, spousal and child support, child custody, possession of the matrimonial home, and the equalization of net family property.
  

• Toronto Criminal Defense Lawyers: they can help represent you against government bodies that have charged you with criminal or provincial offences (e.g. careless driving), including:
  • DUI (driving under the influence)
  • assault
  • sexual assault
  • fraud
  • theft

written by admin \\ tags: accident, accidents, business acquisitions, business lawyers, businessdefense, commercial leases, criminal, custody, family law lawyer, franchise agreement, injuries, injury, investment farm, joint venture agreement, lawyer, lawyers, lawyers in Toronto, litigants, marriage, negligence, negligence actions, negligence cases, negotiating, Negotiations, offence, partnership, personal injury claims, personal injury lawyers, personallawyer, real estate lawyers, separation, shareholder agreement, toronto, toronto motor vehicle accidents, toronto business, toronto personal injury, Toronto real estate Types of Lawyers, trusts and estates, vivos trusts, Wills and Estates

Legal People?  Who are they and what are they capable of?

Well, here’s a short description of the more popular legal people that you’ve always wondered about but never really knew what it was all about:

Lawyer: A person who goes to school for a long time to get trained in analytical and legal reasoning. Lawyer services can be used for various legal issues – ranging from facilitating transactions (like buying or selling a home), representing parties in trial or administrative proceedings or providing answers to legal questions.  Lawyers are very good at reading, writing, researching, thinking, and speaking (both on their own behalf and on behalf of their clients).

Judge: A lawyer who acts in the capacity as a trier of fact/law and renders judgment in cases.  A judge is presumed to be impartial, neutral, and unbiased. They are supposed to conduct trials in a fair and efficient manner to all parties, and (in certain circumstances) weigh the evidence and assess the credibility of witnesses and their testimony.  If an accused is convicted in criminal court, a judge is also responsible for handing down a sentence i.e. prison term, monetary, etc.  In civil cases, a judge must determine what, if any, compensation, award, damages, declaration or other order is warranted in the circumstances.

Paralegal: Is not a lawyer.  In Ontario, they were only recently required to be licensed by the Law Society of Upper Canada.  They are capable of representing parties in Small Claims Court matters (i.e. less than $10,000), minor criminal matters, adjudicative proceedings before Ontario or Federal boards and agencies, provincial highway traffic offences, and statutory accidents and benefits claims.  Paralegals are often found assisting lawyers with their files and typically work under their supervision.

Justice of the Peace (JP): Is an appointed official (sometimes elected, depending of the region) that deal with certain minor court-room matters, such as scheduling a date for trial, hearing and trying provincial offences, performing civil marriages, etc.  It is not necessary for a JP to have a formal education in law or to have been a lawyer (as is required to be a judge).

Notary Public: Is a public officer who performs non-litigious matters e.g. powers- of-attorney, administering oaths, verifying documents (passports), etc.  Notary Public’s do not necessary have to be lawyers, however lawyers qualify as notary republics so long as they fill in the application, pay the $150 (or whatever it costs) government fee, and get themselves an embosser (around $60 at Staples Business Depot).

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Please keep in mind that this is not legal advice.  The information provided herein is for educational purposes only. If you would like to get in touch with a lawyer to determine whether you have a case worth pursuing, then you are encouraged to seek a professional (e.g. make a post on Dynamic Lawyers).

I’m sometimes asked by family, friends, clients, etc. whether they can sue for consuming part or all of a contaminated drink – or perhaps even just observing it. The typical situation is a fly in the soup or bottle at a restaurant.

In these situations, you may be able to sue based on a store/restaurant/manufacturer’s negligence or a breach of their contract with you (i.e. you didn’t get what you bargained for). There are a number of questions that you must typically answer before a lawyer can tell you whether you have a worthwhile case to sue for either of these grounds. For example: did you suffer monetary damages by missing work? Did you go to the hospital and have to pay for medication? Did this experience make you lose any money at all (other than the cost of the drink you likely threw away)? Did this experience cause you to have a psychiatric injury (e.g. nervous shock, emotional distress, a major depressive disorder with associated phobia and anxiety)? Basically, if you sue, a judge will want to know what your damages are in order to award you with something if liability has been found. If you haven’t really suffered any tangible damages, then it’s not worth suing because you won’t get anything.

The importance of establishing damages in these types of cases was reiterated recently by the Supreme Court of Canada in the case of Mustapha v. Culligan of Canada Ltd. Basically, in that case, a person sued a company for psychiatric injury after witnessing a fly in a water bottle. The Supreme Court held that the there was no negligence or breach of contract because the person could not establish that his damage was caused in law by the defendant’s negligence (i.e. the damages were “too remote” to allow recovery).

Each case is different, but at the end of the day, success will depend on what the damages are and whether it was foreseeable that a person of ordinary fortitude would suffer serious injury from, for example, drinking something and finding an insect in it.

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