I bought my son Liam a new bike this past weekend. He just couldn’t wait to get outside and go riding with his friends. But he had to wait while I made sure that his new bicycle helmet fit him properly.
Summertime is Bicycle Time
With warm weather and summer vacation the number of children on bikes increases dramatically. So do the number of children attending hospital emergency rooms with head injuries.
Dr. R. Menon tried to stop a class action filed against him by patients whose test results were mis-read by Menon.
The New Bruswick Court of Appeal ruled last week that the class action can proceed.
I have been following this fiasco for the last two years. For more information you can take a look a some of my past posts:
June is Brain Injury Awareness Month.
Every year in Nova Scotia between 2200 and 3500 people sustain a brain injury through a variety of ways such as falls, motor vehicle accidents, strokes, near drowning and aneurysms. No one recovers 100% from a brain injury. Dealing with the effects of brain injury is a lifelong journey for brain injury survivors and their families. The Brain Injury Association of Nova Scotia works to enhance the quality of life for survivors and their families.
To promote Brain Injury Awareness Month, the Halifax Chapter of the Brain Injury Association is inviting the public to two special movie viewings this month in the Royal Bank Theatre at the Halifax Infirmary on Summer Street.
Injured Victim’s Constitutional Appeal Fails
Today the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear an appeal of a decision that upheld the constitutionality of Nova Scotia’s cap of $2500.00 compensation for injured car accident victims deemed to have suffered a “minor injury”.
The Applicant MacDonald was involved in a car accident in November, 2003. She suffered soft tissue injuries to her neck, shoulders and back. Her insurance company claimed that she had suffered a “minor injury” under Nova Scotia’s new auto insurance provisions and offered a settlement that included the capped amount of $2,500 for pain and suffering.
Survivors of traumatic brain injuries face long waits for treatment and rehabilitation services.
No Service the Norm
The president of the Brain Injury Association of Canada, Shirley Johnson, says that for persons who have suffered brain injuries shortages of programs, long waiting lists or simply no access to services at all, is the norm in most areas of the country.
Nova Scotia has a cap on the amount of compensation that innocent victims are entitled to receive when they have been injured in a car accident.
I have posted before about the unfairness of Nova Scotia’s minor injury cap. For example, see Benefits of “Minor Injury” Cap Legislation does not Justify Discrimination
Promise to Scrap the Cap
Osgoode Hall Law School’s National Symposium on Class Actions is Canada’s “premier forum for class actions debate”. The Symposium “brings together leaders from both sides of the bar as well as experienced judges and academics to share and explain the strategies and tactics at play in this form of high-stakes litigation”.
The conference is taking place at Osgoode Hall Law school April 29 and 30.
I am pleased to say I have been invited to speak to the conference as part of a panel discussing the top 10 class actions decisions of the past year.
More than 650,000 children are seen every year in hospital emergency rooms across North America suffering from the effects of mild traumatic brain injury.
Important Tool
CT scans are an important tool used in diagnosing the severity of brain injury. The problem is that CT scans expose children to the harmful affects of radiation.
A recent decision from the Ontario Superior Court had to ask (and answer) this questions.
In Babakar v. Brown the Babakars were injured in a motor vehicle accident. They were insured by State Farm Insurance. They applied for accident benefits under their own automobile policy. Their insurance company sent the Babakars to see a psychologist, an orthopedic surgeon and a physiotherapist for so called “independent” medical examinations.
Plaintiffs Cut Off
“I always feel like somebody’s watching me.”
Remember that song from the 80’s one hit wonder Rockwell? It’s one that many claimants in personal injury claims feel like singing.
Secretly Watching You
