If You Have Been Hurt, We Can Help You.

Because you did not seek advice or access a good lawyer:

• Your claim form was not submitted to the correct entity or person before the statutory limitation date expired (with no justifiable reason).
• The entity or person you made a claim against, did not have a duty of care.
• Particular processes, procedures, timelines were not adhered to. For example, a Statement of Claim was not submitted according to specific timelines and thus your right to make a claim was lost.
• You settled your claim for a nominal sum, without first seeking adequate legal advices with respect to your rights and if you can claim for different heads of damages. Once a claim has been settled the Claimant cannot go back afterwards and ask for compensation for something that had not been taken into account.
• There was a failure with respect to exhausting all enquiries with respect to liability, causation, and quantum.
• There was a failure to enquire and obtain supporting evidence before legal negotiations commenced.

Sufficient medical evidence was not obtained within the statutory expiration period. For example, a Claimant complained to their doctor of a sore back, neck and anxiety. Their doctor referred the Claimant to an orthopaedic surgeon for assessment of the Claimant’s back and neck however, the doctor failed to refer the Claimant to a psychologist or psychiatrist for assessment of their anxiety. If the Claimant had a good lawyer, the lawyer would ensure that the Claimant is reviewed by all appropriate medical experts in order to obtain admissible evidence of all injuries sustained as a result of the accident.

There is no evidence that you injured yourself in the manner alleged nor is there evidence to support that you injured yourself on the date that you allege. For example, you failed to report your accident and/or all injuries to your employer or your doctor as soon as the accident happened or as soon as possible afterwards or not at all.

You failed to seek legal advice or make a claim within the period of time that is specified in legislation applicable to the circumstances of your injury.

Failing to provide to your lawyer full disclosure of information (including all skeletons in the closet, such as performing cash in hand work, previous injuries etc.) in a frank and timely manner could have a serious impact on your claim.

Making a fraudulent claim or providing conflicting information is never a good idea.

If you are found guilty of making a fraudulent claim, there are serious consequences such as possibly being charged up to $44,000.00 in fines or being imprisoned for up to 18 months.

If it can be established that you provided conflicting information (innocently or not) this will bring into disrepute your character. Thus, when you make the claim that you feel pain and that you are suffering as a result, you will most likely be perceived as a liar and your claim for pain and suffering will be less than what it would have been if you had not provided conflicting information.

Examples of making a fraudulent claim or providing conflicting information:

Fraudulent claim number 1: You said that you hurt your back at work however; you injured your back playing football the day before. The insurers obtain evidence from either your doctor or from another football player that you had in fact hurt your back playing football.

Fraudulent claim number 2: You were the driver of a vehicle involved in a motor vehicle accident. You were not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the accident.

As a result of not wearing the seatbelt you were projected through the vehicle’s windscreen and landed on the bitumen. You sustained multiple injuries.

You said to your lawyer and thus, to the CTP insurer, that you had your seatbelt on at the time of the accident. However, forensic evidence proves that you weren’t wearing your seatbelt.

Fraudulent information / conflicting information ” You made a statement that you can’t lift more than 10 kg of weight because it hurts your back. You are then filmed participating in a cross-fit class, performing “Russian twists” with a 15 kg weight. Although this form of exercise has in fact improved the strength of your back (although it does, still hurt after the exercise) because you did not report this activity to your lawyer and thus, they did not disclose this fact to the insurer, and thus, your credibility is negatively impacted.

Conflicting information: You reported to your doctor that you hurt your ankle at work by rolling it while walking across a plank. However when you later on describe how you injured your ankle to your physiotherapist, you state that you hurt your ankle at work by stepping into a pot hole. With regards to descriptions as to how the accident occurred, consistency is very important. If you are inconsistent in your account, doubt is created as to whether you did in fact injure yourself at all or in the way you described i.e. at work as opposed to at home.

Volenti non fit injuria essentially means that the injured person was aware of the risk of injury and still, voluntarily, put themselves in the position of being injured. In other words, you were to blame for your injury.

For example, just before you sustained your injury, your supervisor reminded you that as per company policy you should wear your safety glasses before grinding the piece of metal. You were aware of the risks of what may happen if you did not wear your safety glasses and voluntarily choose to disregard the company’s policy of wearing safety glasses when grinding metal.

You waited for the Supervisor to leave the room, so that he could not see you not using safety glasses when using the metal grinder. You commence using the metal grinder. A metal shaving is then lodged in your eye and thus, you sustained an injury to your eye.