Toronto personal injury lawyers helping people across Ontario. Pace Law Firm has been providing expert legal representation to individuals throughout Ontario for more than 30 years. Wherever you are in Ontario, our lawyers come to you.
Client service tips from Paul Alisauskas - Pace Law Firm: This past week, in our Collingwood office, we made retainer arrangements with a new client. I was curious how she came to us so I asked the attending lawyer about it; turns out, our firm benefited from the most fundamental of client service failures:
The client had signed up with another significant personal injury firm. But, right away, she found her confidence in her original choice eroded; the firm showed virtually no interest in communicating with her. A number of months after the relationship was established, she still had not spoken to the lawyer handling her file, despite several efforts to do so. She had had several conversations with clerks at the firm, but found getting a return call to be frequently difficult. A number of voicemail messages went ignored.
That's it; end of relationship.
There’s one thing better than learning from your own mistakes – learning from someone else’s.
The implication here is pretty basic: You won’t likely know you’ve laid the groundwork for a defection until your client has already signed up with another firm. The only “notice” the (former) lawyer is going to get is a direction to forward the file.
Do you think we are immune to this kind of defection? Of course not. The firm this client left is a good one with a solid reputation. This client seemingly just “fell off their radar”. There are two lessons here:
It can happen to a good firm with a solid reputation; It will happen without any real warning.
To avoid a cycle of simply ‘trading’ clients between firms due to client service failings, I suggest you do a careful review of every file you are responsible for to determine whether there’s a festering (lack of) communication issue. If there is, make sure you do something about it. Otherwise, someone else might be sending you a direction to forward. There’s one thing better than learning from your own mistakes – learning from someone else’s.
Toronto personal injury lawyer Albert Conforzi: When I first started practicing as a lawyer in Toronto, my early years were spent as a defense lawyer acting for insurance companies. During those years, I learned how to analyze insurance policies and apply that analysis to particular situations as they arose. In addition, I spent some time acting on behalf of victims. They would come to me through professional contacts in my life, as well as through word-of-mouth from friends and relatives.
I think that when any lawyer starts out, they come to the practice of law with altruistic motives. That is, they genuinely want to help their clients. While my years as a defense lawyer were intellectually fulfilling, they did nothing to fulfill this desire to help individuals.
When I finally made the decision to devote my practice exclusively to
victims, I felt a sense of relief come over me. I knew I was now doing
what I was meant to do.
When I finally made the decision to devote my practice exclusively to victims, I felt a sense of relief come over me. I knew I was now doing what I was meant to do. Still, I'm thankful for the time I spent as a defense lawyer. That experience taught me how the case should be presented in a way that an insurance company would be very concerned about.
A successful case is built from the ground up, brick by brick. I have continued to use a relatively simple formula. My strategy involves using the accident benefits side of a file to build the case against the at-fault driver. While many lawyers will let clinics and therapists run the accident benefits side of the file, my team and I take an aggressive interest in how therapies are being utilized.
My team and I make sure that clinicians are adequately documenting the limitations that my clients continue to have. This results in a file where the functional impact of the accident is easily demonstrated. Accordingly, expert support for the tort threshold of permanent and serious impairments can be persuasively articulated by those experts.
While many things have changed since I first started practicing as a lawyer in Toronto - fax machines, e-mail, social media, the Internet, yes, even computers - one thing has stayed the same: it is a privilege to help my clients recover from their injuries. I am proud to say that I am a plaintiff's personal injury lawyer.
Albert Conforzi is a personal injury lawyer with Pace Law Firm in Toronto. He has been representing accident victims for over three decades.
The Toronto Star quotes a study which looks at the 10 worst Toronto intersections for pedestrian accidents.They also go on to describe the situations which may put a pedestrian at the most risk of personal injury.
The number one cause of pedestrian/vehicle accidents turns out to be cars making left turns while pedestrians have the right of way:
The city study found that by far the most car-pedestrian intersection collisions happened when cars turning left struck pedestrians crossing with the right of way: 39 per cent, or 1,864. Twenty per cent, or 951, occurred when right-turning cars struck pedestrians who had the right of way. Collisions between cars driving straight through and pedestrians crossing without the right of way accounted for 13 per cent, or 639 in total.
This study looked at the number of accidents between 2007 to 2011. As we previously reported on our website, from 2000 to 2009, there were over 22,000 pedestrian accidents in the city of Toronto.
Always be aware of your surroundings when crossing any intersection, and be especially careful of cars turning the corners.
Client service tips from Paul Alisauskas - Pace Law Firm: Many of us think of client service as just the art of dealing with the people walking in the door, because they're the people who create the income that pays our salaries. Many writers and organizational experts disagree with such a narrow view. Sometimes, the distinction raised is between ‘internal’ and ‘external’ clients. Really, it’s far simpler to think in terms that a ‘client’ is anyone who can influence outcomes in our service package.
Clearly, this extends from the mail room to the office of the head of the firm. Once you see things from that perspective, it becomes more obvious that we have to be mindful of our dealings with everyone we typically encounter in our jobs. It’s not a big stretch to see that the manner in which we deal with each other is what, in all likelihood, we communicate to that special class of client on whose behalf we are acting.
It’s very common for people to look around and find fault with others; whether it be their manner, their way of doing their job, or something else. Whether we actually voice complaint with the fault is another question. Just for a change, how about trying this:
Catch somebody doing something RIGHT today
When you do (and you will), make sure you point it out to the person you’ve “caught”; perhaps even tell some of your co-workers about it.
Recognition, praise, and feedback are the principal ingredients of a happy workplace. Do your part intentionally and see just how infectious the activity can become.
Ultimately, if the government does not survive the confidence motion, the document will become the centerpiece for the Liberal party's election campaign.
For Ontario motorists, there is a pledge to try to get a 15% reduction in auto insurance premiums. This is an attempt to get New Democratic party support for the budget. It remains to be seen whether the pledge works. In the meantime, any discussion about insurance premiums usually ends up being a trade-off of rights and benefits versus cost. But the devil is always in the details.
One can easily foresee insurers working towards a day when only clinics
who work at minimizing a victim's access to care will be the order of the day.
The proposal is a 15% reduction for safe drivers, which sounds great. But it remains to be seen what a "safe" driver means to insurers.
One provision tells me that the insurance lobby is alive, well, and has already sealed the deal. That provision relates to the Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO) potentially licensing therapy clinics.
On its face, this idea is supposed to answer concerns about potential fraud by shady clinics. However, the idea of FSCO becoming a licensing commission of clinics is open to tremendous abuse. Think what would happen to a clinic or clinics targeted by insurers because they are too committed to serving victims. Sufficient coordinated complaints by insurers would certainly give rise to an investigation by FSCO, and a potential revocation of that clinic's license by the investigations could result. One can easily foresee insurers working towards a day when only clinics who work at minimizing a victim's access to care will be the order of the day.
Never underestimate the efforts of insurers at advancing their profits ahead of actually helping policyholders.
Albert Conforzi is a personal injury lawyer with Pace Law Firm in Ontario. His posts generally appear on Mondays.
Client service tips from Paul Alisauskas - Pace Law Firm: When you are relating to, helping or problem-solving for a client, there’s no more important skill than listening. Apart from helping to conclude a task, the added benefit of effective listening is that it shows the client that they are important - they have something worthwhile to say. This is illustrated in the following anecdote:
William Gladstone and Benjamin Disraeli were both eminent British statesmen in the late 19th century. They were also fierce enemies. The story goes that a young lady was taken to dinner one evening by Gladstone, and then the following evening by Disraeli.
The woman later said, “When I left the dining room after sitting next to Mr. Gladstone, I thought he was the cleverest man in England. But after sitting next to Mr. Disraeli, I thought I was the cleverest woman in England.”
Disraeli obviously had a knack for making the other person the center of his universe, if only for the evening. If you practice attentiveness to others, you’ll find it does wonders. They will enjoy it, and so will you. You will accomplish much more. And, you will find it the simplest tool imaginable for building rapport with your client.
What happens if your insurance company disagrees that you are still entitled to accident benefits?
Toronto personal injury lawyer Michelle Arzaga discusses mediation and arbitration procedures in personal injury law, with a focus on the Financial Services Commission of Ontario.
Watch the video and read the transcript below.
S: Back again at Pace Law Firm, with Pace Lawyer, Michelle Arzaga. Michelle thanks for coming back. We're going to talk today about mediations and arbitrations, what does it even mean? Michelle, I know that on our blog and the Facebook page, we've been posting stuff about our FSCO updates, FSCO decisions and the word 'mediation' keeps coming in there. What is a mediation, when would it happen?
00:22 Michelle Arzaga: Just to back you up a little bit, I know that you say FSCO, and I'm sure I've got a lot of clients that even ask me what FSCO means, it's short form for the Financial Services Commission of Ontario.
00:32 S1: Okay.
00:32 MA: So if you start from the beginning what happens is, is that if you were involved in a car accident, you apply to your own insurer for accident benefits, and for the most part, your own insurer will approved those benefits that you are entitled to. There are times where they will deny it outright, and most of the time they will approve. But at some point, plaintiffs can expect to get those benefits terminated and the insurer may disagree with the plaintiff as to whether or not he or she is still entitled to those benefits. When that dispute arises, then plaintiffs have recourse and they can apply to the Financial Services Commission or FSCO as it's better known as and apply for what's called a mediation. And that's where FSCO assigns someone called the Mediator to help the plaintiff and the insurer get back on the same page because there's obviously dispute over an entitlement to benefits. So that's what it's called, and unfortunately in what you've been seeing in the news these days, is that there is definitely a backlog, there aren't enough mediators and there are simply too many disputes between plaintiffs and insurers over whether or not the plaintiff is entitled to further benefits from their own insurer.
01:43 S1: So what does the mediation room look like, what happens during that mediation?
01:48 MA: Okay. So you can have mediations either by telephone or in person.
01:52 S1: Oh! Right.
01:53 MA: And when you do have it in person, you have it at the FSCO offices, which is at Young and Shepherd or North of there. And the mediator comes into the room or by telephone, all the parties are involved, your lawyer is involved. And what they do is they talk about what the issues are and what the medical documentation is and the insurer basically lays out their position as to why they've made the decision that they have. And then the plaintiff's lawyer makes their position known in terms of why the position is, is that there is a further entitlement to benefits. The mediator doesn't make any orders at a mediation. What it is, is the mediator tries to facilitate the conversation and tries to see if there can be some sort of compromise or if we can get the insurer to agree to extending the benefits or continuing or reinstating the benefits.
02:40 S1: Now, let's go a step further. What happens if the mediation breaks down and no one agrees on anything?
02:46 MA: Now when that happens, you can consider the mediation failed, either if it's in person or on the telephone, the mediator will then file a report, essentially setting out when the mediation was held, what the issues were in dispute, and will also indicate, whether or not it's settled or whether or not it failed. And if it fails, it doesn't mean that it ends right then and there for the plaintiff. It doesn't mean that you're no longer entitled to benefits. What it means is, is that you've got to further, call it... We can call it an appeal, file for something that's called an arbitration through the Financial Services Commission or go by way of court proceedings through the Superior Court.
03:26 S1: Now we did talk about this a little bit before the interview. I asked you which one do you like better. What road do you like to go down, is it the court road or going to the arbitration route?
03:36 MA: Well with respect to accident benefits and disputes with your own insurer, there is something that's called the Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule. I mean it's quite a particular, specific type of legislation, and you need to be specialized in it and you need to know it. You want to have people making decisions on it that know what they're doing and know what that law is about. And the Financial Services Commission, they have arbitrators, who can make decisions on and apply the law in the proper way. So, for me in my own opinion, I actually prefer to file for arbitration through the Financial Services Commission when a mediation has failed.
04:13 S1: Arbitration or going to court, same time period? Length of time that the process takes, or what?
04:18 MA: These days, it looks like our courts are just as backlogged as FSCO, so it looks like the same time period, although FSCO is trying very hard to make that backlog, and then make that wait much less, but these days you are waiting an inordinate amount of time, to be honest.
04:37 S1: Average? What are we talking about?
04:38 MA: About one to two years.
04:39 S1: One to two years?
04:39 MA: Yeah, for arbitrations you make it sooner than that.
04:42 S1: Wow.
04:42 MA: Yes.
04:43 S1: When it gets to that stage, is that, that's binding. You said the mediator doesn't make any hard and fast rulings, but the arbitrator that's different, isn't it?
04:52 MA: Right, so when you do file for arbitration or if you go by way of court proceedings, the decision then becomes that of the arbitrator or of the judge, if it's... If it goes by way of court proceedings, so, yes. You are giving the decision to the arbitrator to look at the issues in dispute and then make the decision that's binding.
05:09 S1: Excellent. Okay, so for more information on mediation and arbitration at FSCO, be sure to call Michelle and also email her at the email address you see on the... On the screen. Michelle, thanks again for stopping by.
