The Canadian Laws Regarding Compensation For Pain And Suffering

A strong belief held by authorities within the Canadian legal system formed the basis around which the laws on pain and suffering got formalized. Consequently, those laws are based on this belief: No money can provide true restitution to the victim of an accident.

Specific details in the Canadian law on pain and suffering

There is a cap on the amount of money that any victim can claim for pain and suffering. The nature of any victim’s injuries determines how the judge will apply the available caps. If an injury does not pass a given threshold, the victim should not expect to receive more than $340,000.00.

When a victim’s injury passes that threshold, then the Injury Lawyer in Sudbury chosen by that same victim can strive to obtain an award that comes as close as possible to the maximum allowed amount, a total of $1,000,000.00. Victims that manage to pass that threshold have what Canada considers to be a catastrophic injury.

Rules that a lawyer must keep in mind when presenting a client’s case

Any amount of money awarded by the court will get reduced by $30,000.00. That reduction becomes necessary, because Canadian law calls for payment of a deductible by each person that appears in court, hoping to claim compensation for pain and suffering. The size of that deductible stays the same for all victims; it amounts to $30,000.00.

An attorney can seek more money for a client by focusing on the other heads of damage. For instance, a lawyer might point out the need to compensate a given client for both the recent loss of income and also the projected future loss of income. Similarly, a lawyer’s argument could focus on the costs of treatment, along with the costs of rehabilitation and any further treatment that might be deemed necessary.

A client’s emotional and psychological issues might be able to push a victim over the threshold established for qualifying as another of the victims of catastrophic injuries. Still, that could only happen if the judge felt that the injury had caused permanent impairment of a psychological function. The judge bases his or her decision on the submitted medical report, and also an analysis of similar cases from the past.

Victims put at a disadvantage by Canadian system

Those are the injured men and women that had to undergo some relatively new form of treatment. The adequacy of that treatment might pale in the minds of an attorney, because so little is known about the treatment’s effects. Yet the attorney’s doubts cannot get introduced into the courtroom presentation. Consequently, the costs for future treatments might total-up to a figure that exceeds the figure estimated by the judge and, thus, by the court.