Category: Motor Vehicle Accidents

Winter Driving Tips for Motorists

Alberta winters can be beautiful, but they can also be dangerous. Snow piles up on the road; blizzards impair drivers’ vision, and ice makes it easier for cars to slip.

Fortunately, car accident fatalities usually decrease during the winter. More people stay inside instead of risking bad weather, and most people drive slowly in bad weather.  However, accidents tend to increase on the first day or two after a snowstorm as drivers adjust to the new weather conditions. 

Not all accidents can be avoided, especially when you’re the victim of a negligent driver. But there are steps you can take to keep yourself and others on the road safe this winter. Continue reading

Halloween: the Scariest Night of the Year for Personal Injury Lawyers

Halloween, steeped in its Celtic origins, has been embraced as a fun holiday by most Canadians, including children, teenagers, and adults. For those who celebrate Halloween, this is a wonderful time of the year. For an experienced plaintiff’s personal injury lawyer, however, Halloween can be a very scary night.

Young children, decked out in colourful costumes idealizing what they would like to be, or dressed as their favourite pop culture character, will run from house to house to gather treats from strangers, frequently in unknown neighbourhoods and in darkness. Teenagers will gather for raucous Halloween parties with their friends, frequently indulging in alcohol or drugs. Continue reading

The Real Costs of Distracted Driving

Distracted driving, as a contributing cause of serious accidents, is not new but the causes of distraction have increased as our society adopts new and more pervasive technology.

The RCMP considers distracted driving a form of impaired driving, because “a driver’s judgement is compromised when they are not fully focused on the road.” In Alberta alone, there were 23,546 distracted driving convictions in 2018. In an effort to reduce distracted driving incidents, as of January 1, 2016, penalties for distracted driving in Alberta began to include three demerit points in addition to a $287 fine.

Research released by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety indicates that drivers using mobile devices, whether hands-free or hand-held, are more than four times as likely to be involved in a crash. Continue reading

Confused About Alberta’s Minor Injury Regulation?

In 2004, the insurance industry successfully lobbied the Alberta provincial government to “cap” damages payable to motor vehicle accident victims for minor injuries. Since that time, some insurance representatives have argued that the top damage award payable under the cap, is awarded only to those who have suffered the most serious “minor injuries,” and they then attempt to bargain down from this minimal sum. Some insurance representatives may also take the position that your injuries clearly fall within the “cap,” when in fact they do not, either due to the nature of the injuries or because the injuries resulted in a serious impairment. Continue reading

4 Serious Neck and Back Injury Symptoms From a Car Accident

It’s not uncommon for injuries to reveal themselves days or even weeks after a car accident. For some injury sufferers, it can be difficult to determine cause and effect of injury symptoms to the neck and back if they don’t surface until days after an accident. For anyone recently injured in a car accident, if you begin to experience any of the following injury symptoms, you need to seek immediate medical attention to ensure your injuries are treated and to avoid the risk of the injuries becoming more serious.

Neck Injuries – Whiplash Trauma

Whiplash trauma is one of the most common neck injuries following an accident. Continue reading

The Importance of Your Family Doctor in Your Personal Injury Claim

Anyone who has been injured knows that it can be an awful experience. In addition to coping with pain and suffering, you may be worried that your symptoms might not improve. Furthermore, your injuries impact those around you. It’s never easy for those close to you to see you suffer, and they may experience feelings of helplessness. It’s important to everyone involved that you do whatever you can to heal and feel better.

If you are injured, the best way to help yourself and, those you love, is to follow the advice of your doctors and other medical professionals. In fact, from a legal standpoint, taking reasonable positive steps to ease your own pain and suffering is an extremely important part of obtaining full compensation for your injury claim. Continue reading