Wrecked hard on Tuesday | Page 2 | GTAMotorcycle.com

Wrecked hard on Tuesday

My wife went through something similar last year. Guy turned left in front of her at an intersection, 100% his fault.

It's free to call and get a consult, but prepare to be disappointed in your personal injury legal quest. Ontario's system actively discourages it. My wife called a half dozen law firms and learned:
  • You must be able to prove that you have been permanently impaired or disabled as the result of the injury. Temporary injury, pain, suffering, etc, are not enough to bring a personal injury suit against the other party. Loss of wages gets handled through your various insurance policies if you have appropriate coverage.
  • In order to deter personal injury lawsuits, there is a $44,000 deductible for any payout under $147k. So even if you win, the first $44k does not end up in your pocket.

There's conversation on the topic in this thread.

When did that deductible come into effect?
 
Sorry to hear you and the bike are hurt.

Hopefully you recover quickly, and you get a new ride that makes you happy.

Really glad you didn’t make it to fallen riders thread.

GWS
 
My wife went through something similar last year. Guy turned left in front of her at an intersection, 100% his fault.

It's free to call and get a consult, but prepare to be disappointed in your personal injury legal quest. Ontario's system actively discourages it. My wife called a half dozen law firms and learned:
  • You must be able to prove that you have been permanently impaired or disabled as the result of the injury. Temporary injury, pain, suffering, etc, are not enough to bring a personal injury suit against the other party. Loss of wages gets handled through your various insurance policies if you have appropriate coverage.
  • In order to deter personal injury lawsuits, there is a $44,000 deductible for any payout under $147k. So even if you win, the first $44k does not end up in your pocket.

There's conversation on the topic in this thread.
I’d also like to know when that deductible came into effect. I had a great experience with my personal injury lawyer from a collision where other driver was 100% at fault. I paid zero deductible, although mine was 18yrs ago.

@JTR very sorry to hear about the mishap and good to hear that your injuries are pretty minor all things considered.
Not sure what type of income replacement benefits you have, but I pay extra on my premium to receive the max weekly amount. The base amount was $400/week.

ThomsonRogers was the firm I used and they were aggressive and very easy for me to deal with. They charged no retainer and took 25% once the settlement was reached, which was very fair. Total time to my settlement was around 18 months, where I successfully claimed against the other drivers insurance company and also filed a claim against my own insurance company and won that too.

Start a binder immediately with all your communications, receipts, medical assessments and so on in the binder. It will really help you a year down the road when you need to refer back to or need a record of something relevant.

There are many silver linings in an incident such as yours and I hope that you can see them and make the most out of them. Personally, I found my wife, changed my career, digitized my entire vinyl collection and bought a litre bike.

Any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out.
 
gws
 
I think the $44K deductible came in with the "fraud" mitigation changes a decade-ish ago. You can option coverage to reduce the deductible as part of the optional "improved" (i.e. rolling back the coverage cuts) accident benefits
 
I’d also like to know when that deductible came into effect. I had a great experience with my personal injury lawyer from a collision where other driver was 100% at fault. I paid zero deductible, although mine was 18yrs ago.

@JTR very sorry to hear about the mishap and good to hear that your injuries are pretty minor all things considered.
Not sure what type of income replacement benefits you have, but I pay extra on my premium to receive the max weekly amount. The base amount was $400/week.

ThomsonRogers was the firm I used and they were aggressive and very easy for me to deal with. They charged no retainer and took 25% once the settlement was reached, which was very fair. Total time to my settlement was around 18 months, where I successfully claimed against the other drivers insurance company and also filed a claim against my own insurance company and won that too.

Start a binder immediately with all your communications, receipts, medical assessments and so on in the binder. It will really help you a year down the road when you need to refer back to or need a record of something relevant.

There are many silver linings in an incident such as yours and I hope that you can see them and make the most out of them. Personally, I found my wife, changed my career, digitized my entire vinyl collection and bought a litre bike.

Any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out.
On the wage end, I have the coverage on my bike policy, if it’s not up to snuff then I will look into whether I’m covered by WSIB while commuting(union can help me with that), also have blue cross from work. I’ve started collecting receipts, paperwork, making notes, and keeping a mileage log for all injury related travel. I did take the advice of buying lottery tickets on Tuesday, but I must have used up all my luck that morning.
 
That sucks. went through the same kind of thing a few years ago.

I will PM you my guy.


Just to touch on the 44,000 deductible thing. It is even worse than you realize.

-In trail, it is forbidden to inform the jury that this is a thing.
-All of these cases go to mediation first, if you can not agree on a dollar value, it goes to trial.
-Lets say the insurance company offers you 60,000 dollars. You do not agree that the 26,000 that you will receive is enough so you go to trial.
-At trial, the jury thinks your injuries are indeed justified and they award you 50,000. You just lost the court case. Because the jury does not know about the deductible, they do not know that they really just awarded you 6,000, not 50,000. Because there was a previous offer on the table for more, you get nothing and have to pay court costs for the insurance company.

Tell me again how Government is not in bed with Insurance?
 
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I'll add my 2 cents. @Soulcatcher668 got everything right above. Just a slight clarification: the tort deductible depends on the payout amount, and if it exceeds a certain threshold. It also changes if there's a fatality. The thresholds and amounts change every year, and I don't work in claims, so I'm not aware these exact amounts.

I agree the tort/statutory deductible sucks. It's rising for 2024 also another couple grand. If anyone wants this deductible reduced, you can add an endorsement, OPCF 48, to your policy, and that drops it down, depending on situation. The standard accident benefits on auto policies is quite low - not specifically $400/week, but up to that amount (75% of income).

For people who are retired, working part-time, this can mean very little in terms of pay to you.
 
Man, I hate reading about these types of stories where stupidity on someone else's part affects someone else.

Glad you're still with us ... driver was on his phone I'd guess so wasn't even looking ahead to see you.
 
Sad to hear it. We all make mistakes, and this is the result sometimes. GWS and hope you are able to keep riding after this.
 
Mistakes? JTR made no mistake. I'd wager that driver lives in that area and has run that stop light many times before on purpose and got away with it (I see it all the time in Brampton).

Eventually, taking that risk will bite you ... just too bad he had to take an innocent person with him.
 

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