Blog – Neinstein Personal Injury Lawyers
PRESS RELEASE: Celebrating 13 Years of Mix & Mingle
TORONTO, March 13, 2017 /CNW/ – On June 14, 2017, the Steam Whistle Brewery in downtown Toronto will open its doors for the 13th annual Mix & Mingle reception benefiting the Brain Injury Society of Toronto (BIST) and the Ontario Brain Injury Association (OBIA).
For the over 500 000 brain injury survivors across the province, fundraisers like the BIST/OBIA Mix & Mingle event – attended last year by close to 700 industry professionals and guests who collectively raised nearly $160 000 for the cause – represent a reinforced and expanded network of essential resources and an important step towards rebuilding lives after serious accident and injury.
“This event brings together professionals and service providers in the brain injury community,” Mix & Mingle Chair Greg Neinstein explains, “supporting two fantastic organizations whose sole goal is to support those living with brain injuries.”
As Managing Partner at Toronto firm Neinstein Personal Injury Lawyers, Neinstein has seen firsthand the positive impacts that quality health care and benefits can create for individuals and families currently adjusting to a new and often difficult reality following acquired or traumatic brain injury, a life-altering condition directly affecting 18 000 Ontarians and 50 000 Canadians nationwide every year. In part, these shockingly high statistics reflect a more accurate understanding of concussion as a brain injury and its potential for long-term effects. Still, more individuals may not immediately recognize the signs of head trauma in themselves or their loved ones, since unlike the evidence of a cut or broken bone, symptoms such as persistent headaches, mood disturbances, and difficulties with concentration and communication can be frequently overlooked.
Today, there is no cure for brain injury, but there is hope. Fortunately, through knowledge comes the power of prevention; for example, according to OBIA, cyclists who choose to wear a helmet reduce their chances of sustaining debilitating brain injury by 88%. From the organization’s early days over 30 years ago, OBIA – of which BIST is the Toronto chapter – has continued to deliver accessible educational programs, ongoing research and peer support for survivors, caregivers and families across the province and online. Every injury, and everyone, is unique, and the journey to recovery takes time. For providing steadfast advocacy, legal counsel and access to necessary medical and rehabilitative care, as well as contributions to the Mix & Mingle campaign, the OBIA ABI Conference and OBIA Review Magazine, Neinstein Personal Injury Lawyers is a recipient of the OBIA Legal Fellowship Award.
This year’s theme at the BIST/OBIA Mix & Mingle event is “Celebrating Partnership”, with a spotlight on the professionals working together within the brain injury community as well as the generous donors who help make positive change a reality. June is Brain Injury Awareness Month in Canada. Together, we can work to promote understanding and enhance the lives of all Canadians by taking a closer look at the “invisible disability” of brain injury:
- 1 in 26 Canadians are currently living with a brain injury
- Half of all acquired brain injuries result from motor vehicle accidents; 30 percent of all traumatic brain injuries will involve children and young adults
- Nearly one million dollars has been raised for brain injury research, education and advocacy since the partnership between BIST/OBIA and Neinstein Personal Injury Lawyers began in 2010
- This event is likely to sell out; for tickets or sponsorship information, please visit OBIA.ca
About OBIA: The Ontario Brain Injury Association is a non-profit organization with a focus on awareness, education, and support for Ontario individuals and families affected by acquired brain injury.
About Neinstein Personal Injury Lawyers: Helping Ontarians on the road to recovery for close to 50 years. Greg Neinstein has partnered with BIST/OBIA as Mix & Mingle Event Chair since 2010 with his colleagues, lawyer Erik Joffe and firm Director of Communications Ruth Fernandes, to serve as part of the fundraising Steering Committee.
Preventable injuries take a twofold toll on Canadian society
The majority of injuries suffered by Canadians are, in theory, preventable. Car accidents, for example, rarely occur without some form of human error, such as driving while intoxicated, disobeying the rules of the road, or texting and driving. A cyclist, ATVer, or snowmobiler who suffers a brain injury while riding without a helmet has incurred a preventable injury. Most medical malpractice lawsuits derive from avoidable hospital or physician errors.
Just because an individual’s injuries could have been prevented, however, does not mean that they are not entitled to compensation. Preventable injuries account for a substantial portion of Neinstein Toronto Personal Injury Lawyers’ business, and as such we understand the enormous impact they have on society at large.
This impact can be measured in two distinct ways.
Pain and suffering
First, preventable injuries can cause acute physical and emotional suffering. The Ontario Injury Prevention Resource Centre and Parachute Canada, an injury prevention organization, released in 2015 a report entitled The Cost of Injury in Canada. This publication found that nearly 16,000 Canadians died from preventable injuries in 2010, roughly 43 deaths each day. Preventable injuries are considered the leading cause of deaths for Canadians under the age of 44.
“The stark reality is injury and trauma disproportionately affect the youngest, most vibrant populations in our society,” Dr. Bill Sevcik, emergency chief at the University of Alberta Hospital, told the CBC. “It’s the number one killer in the first four decades of life in Canada.”
Monetary impacts
Toronto personal injury lawyers are well-acquainted with the physical and emotional trauma that can accompany severe injuries, but there are other, broader implications to the number of preventable accidents that take place in Canada.
The report published by Parachute and the Ontario Injury Prevention Resource Centre attempts to quantify “the cost of injury to Canadian children, our families, our health care system, and to Canadian society.”
Besides the 15,866 deaths that occurred in 2010, more than 60,000 Canadians were disabled by preventable injuries, 231,600 Canadians were hospitalized, and 3.5-million made emergency room visits. Together, these events cost just under $16-billion in direct health care costs and almost $27-billion in total economic costs, according to the report.
In other words, preventable injuries place the Canadian healthcare system, rehabilitative services, and Toronto personal injury lawyers under significant stress.
Prevention
So, what measures are being taken to reduce preventable injuries? In Ontario, a variety of governmental and non-governmental organizations have taken up the fight. The Ministry of Health and Long Term Care have instituted an injury prevention strategy, and Public Health Ontario works to protect the health of all Ontarians. The Ministries of Transportation, Labour, and Education each focus on improving safety in their respective fields.
In spite of these efforts, though, injuries cost Ontario around $8.8-billion in 2010, a number which continues to grow each year.
If you or a member of your family has been injured in a preventable accident, contact Neinstein’s Toronto Personal Injury Lawyers today to learn how our team can help you access compensation for the damages you have incurred.
Opioids provide short-term relief, not long-term solutions. Are there alternatives?
In an excellent opinion piece written for the Globe and Mail by Kate Smolina, Director of the BC Observatory for Population & Public Health at the BC Centre for Disease Control, and Dr. Kim Rutherford, a family physician and worker at Vancouver Coastal Health in the city’s Downtown Eastside, the authors argue that the practice of prescribing opioids for chronic pain is dangerous, and that alternative treatments are desperately needed in Canada.
Chronic pain lawyers are familiar with and generally support this argument; as North America grapples with an unprecedented wave of addiction, and as evidence mounts that opioids offer little long-term relief, alternative treatments may be a lifeline to avoiding a continent-wide crisis.
Chronic pain is a profoundly misunderstood form of disability. A 2011 study found that nearly 20 per cent of all Canadians experienced chronic pain, and that it is “a multifaceted disorder associated with considerable disability, burden to the patient, the health care system and society overall.”
Stigma
Unlike serious spinal or brain injuries, chronic pain doesn’t necessarily present itself visibly to the outside world.
“Everything about you is impacted by unrelenting and undermanaged pain,” Lynn Cooper, a chronic pain sufferer and head of the Canadian Pain Coalition, told the Globe and Mail. “There’s always a stigma that’s attached to it that you’re a complainer, a drug-seeker or a malingerer, and if you just tried harder and got over yourself you’d be fine.”
This stigma can sometimes make it difficult for chronic pain lawyers to access sufficient benefits for their clients, as well, meaning treatments other than prescribed medication are often unattainable.
Limited treatment options
Dr. Fiona Campbell, president-elect of the Canadian Pain Society, told the Globe and Mail that she sorts pain management into three categories: pharmacological, which includes prescription medication, including opioids; physical, which includes massage and physiotherapy; and psychological, including therapy and mindfulness. Only pharmacological treatments are available through publicly funded health insurance.
“I fell quite strongly that these [alternative] services should be provided by provincial health-insurance plans because they work, they’re healthy, they promote resilience and they’re preventative,” Campbell told the Globe. “I don’t see a downside.”
The problem with opioids
Unlike the other forms of pain treatment, opioids are neither resilient nor preventative. They can relieve pain in the short term, but require higher doses to achieve the same effect over time, which leads to an increased likelihood of falls, car accidents, and overdoses.
“The main thing is to get the message across that opioids are not good treatment for long-term pain, that they don’t have good long-term outcomes. Full stop. They’re not safe,” said Dr. Jane Ballantyne, a professor of anesthesiology and pain medicine at the University of Washington, and an early crusader in the fight against opioids.
What can be done?
In their op-ed, Smolina and Rutherford propose the foundations of a plan to battle growing reliance on opioids. Their strategy includes support and therapy for current users; improving funded access to alternative treatments options, including “topical agents, neuropathic medications, steroid injections, nerve blocks, physiotherapy and active rehabilitation services”; and initiating a public education campaign to increase awareness of opioids’ dangers.
How can chronic pain lawyers help?
If you or someone you love has developed chronic pain as a result of an accident, you have the right to medical and rehabilitative treatment options that don’t put you at risk of developing a dangerous narcotic dependence. Contact the chronic pain lawyers at Neinstein Personal Injury Lawyers today for a free, no-obligation consultation.
Boots, climate to blame for spike in winter slip and falls?
Slipping on ice or snow is a Canadian rite of passage. If you’ve spent a winter in this country, chances are you’ve endured at least one embarrassing tumble, and in most cases only our egos get hurt: we laugh, dust ourselves off, and continue with our days. But slip-and-fall incidents can sometimes result in serious, long-term injuries, and in these cases Neinstein Personal Injury Lawyers’ team of slip and fall lawyers is here to help.
A recent slip-and-fall case in Ottawa is an example of the potential severity of these incidents. In January, 46-year-old network engineer Troy Kraus slipped on a patch of black ice in his driveway as he left his house to walk to work. He broke four vertebrae in his neck.
“I immediately knew it was bad, because I lost all feeling in my body,” Kraus told CBC Ottawa. “I could move my head a little bit, and I could breathe and I could speak, but I had no feeling and no movement anywhere else.”
Kraus’s broken vertebrae were fused together with a titanium rod in an eight-hour surgery, and he now has limited spinal mobility. He can’t move his arms or hands, and is learning to operate an electric wheelchair by blowing into a mouthpiece at the Ottawa Hospital Rehabilitation Centre. While Kraus’s unique situation may not warrant a lawsuit, slip and fall lawyers are well-suited to deal with this variety of injury.
Dr. Geoff Fernie, a research director at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, told the CBC last year that some 21,000 Ontarians were hospitalized after slipping on ice in 2015. That number can be attributed, in part, to the poor quality of winter footwear available to consumers. Fernie’s team at Toronto Rehab’s WinterLab recently conducted a test of 98 models of winter boots, and found that only nine of them passed the study’s slip test.
“You’d think winter boots would be adapted for winter, but they’re not,” Fernie said. “Some of the boots are so bad that they couldn’t stand up on level ice.”
In Edmonton, city officials have seen a spike in slip-and-fall complaints over the last several years, and believe our changing climate may bear some of the blame. Periods of warm weather followed by cold spells are causing especially slick surfaces and forcing citizens to be more proactive when maintaining their sidewalks.
“Over the past couple of years we’ve noticed that January to February we get these incredible warm spells with double digit plus degrees when typically you’d be experiencing double digit minus degrees,” said Troy Courtoreille, coordinator of the city’s general enforcement unit, to the Edmonton Journal.
Regardless of cause, slip and fall lawyers, can help injured individuals assess their legal standing and in some cases access compensation for their injuries. In Canada, this is a vital service – slip and falls are common, and can result in injuries that significantly damage quality of life.
If you’ve been hurt in a slip and fall event, contact the slip and fall lawyers at Neinstein Personal Injury Lawyers today for a free, no-obligation consultation. Our team can process the legal minutiae while you focus on your recovery.
Aviva Canada blames high Ontario premiums on contingency fees
Last month, Aviva Canada, one of the country’s largest property and casualty insurance groups, issued a release claiming that legal contingency fees, referral fees, and widespread legal advertising are “examples of why Ontario drivers are paying the highest insurance premiums in Canada.”
“Ontario drivers pay too much for auto insurance,” Aviva’s Executive Vice President of Claims, Irene Bianchi, said in the release. “Contingency fees are one of the key drivers of claims costs and, as a result, increase insurance premiums that all Ontario drivers pay.” read more…
Competitive cyclists’ death renews calls for one-metre passing law
On December 23, on a rural road near Sussex, New Brunswick, Ottawa-based competitive cyclist Ellen Watters was struck by a vehicle while out on a training ride. She died five days later, at the age of 28.
In response to Watters’ death, cyclists in New Brunswick have renewed calls for the province to institute a ‘one-metre rule,’ now dubbed Ellen’s Law. One-metre passing laws stipulate that drivers must leave a minimum of one-metre distance when passing a cyclist. In neighbouring Nova Scotia, drivers face a maximum fine of $800 for failing to allow proper clearance when passing. In Ontario, where Watters trained and where Neinstein’s team of bicycle accident lawyers is working to protect the rights of vulnerable road users, a one-metre law was introduced in September 2015. read more…
January 25 is Bell Let’s Talk Day
Credit: @Bell_LetsTalk on Twitter
Today, January 25, is the seventh annual Bell Let’s Talk Day, an occasion for Canadians to come together, discuss mental health issues, and raise money for various mental health initiatives around the country. All day, Bell will donate five cents for every text message, mobile call, and long distance call made by Bell Canada and Bell Aliant customers, and for every Twitter and Instagram post using #BellLetsTalk; every view of the Bell Let’s Talk Day video at Facebook.com/BellLetsTalk; and every use of the Bell Let’s Talk geofilter on Snapchat. read more…
Neinstein Personal Injury Lawyers nominated one of Canada’s Top 10 Personal Injury Law Firms
Neinstein Personal Injury Lawyers is once again honoured to be nominated as one of Canada’s Top 10 Personal Injury Law Firms for 2017-2018 by Canadian Lawyer Magazine. This is our third nomination for this prestigious recognition.
Canadian Lawyer’s annual list recognizes personal injury law firms from across Canada who have delivered exemplary, dedicated service to their clients.
Over the past four decades, Neinstein Personal Injury Lawyers has established a reputation as strong, compassionate legal representatives who work tirelessly to ensure our clients are appropriately protected and compensated. We are extremely proud to once again be recognized for our customer service, legal expertise, and tireless dedication. read more…
Get home safe this snowmobiling season
Winters in rural Canada can be particularly unforgiving. Whereas city-dwellers enjoy municipally orchestrated snow-removal, sidewalk-salting, and emergency services, Canadians who live in the country must be more self-reliant. Power outages last longer; plow services are sometimes unavailable; and visiting the supermarket requires driving long distances, even in inclement weather.
One stark advantage to living in a rural setting, though, is access to Canada’s expansive wilderness. And what better way to enjoy the countryside in the winter months than snowmobiling? In rural Ontario, snowmobiling is an incredibly popular pastime, one which can sometimes lead to serious injuries. By taking a few common-sense precautions, Ontario’s snowmobilers can remain safe throughout the season. And, if an accident should occur, you can always contact a Neinstein snowmobile accident lawyer to discuss your options. read more…
Canadian innovations reason for hope for brain injury victims
Credit: James Heilman MD/Wikimedia Commons
Brain injury and concussion victims – and the brain injury lawyer that represents them – have reason for optimism at the start of 2017, thanks to a pair of Canadian research teams. Two separate developments – one out of Quebec and one via London, Ontario – produced new insights which may help doctors diagnose concussions and track the recovery of brain injury victims.
The first breakthrough was revealed in a study led by Catherine Duclos of the Université de Montréal, which found a close link between the recovery of cognitive functionality and healthy sleep habits in TBI patients.
The second development came from researchers at Western University and the Lawson Health Research Institute, who announced a new, simple blood test that can determine with 90 per cent accuracy whether a person has suffered a concussion.
Sleep Patterns and TBI
In Montreal, researchers studied 30 adults hospitalized with acute traumatic brain injuries from a number of causes, from sports injuries to car accidents. The study aimed to discern whether any connection existed between the patient’s recovery process and their sleep patterns.
“Our results showed that when the brain has not sufficiently recovered a certain level of consciousness, it is also unable to generate a 24-hour sleep-wake cycle and consolidated nighttime sleep,” the report stated.
In other words, patients who scored low on the Rancho Los Amigos scale, which rates cognitive function on a scale of 1 to 8, also experienced difficulty sleeping through the night and had trouble maintaining consistent sleep patterns. As the patients regained their cognitive functionality, their sleeping habits improved.
“Sleep and functional cognition in these patients are like two sides of the same coin,” wrote Dr. Andrea Soddu of the Brain and Mind Institute at Western University about the study. “They’re both very informative and they’re important to monitor.”
The research suggests that monitoring sleep patterns may be a valuable tool in tracking TBI victims’ recovery, and could yield information that would improve personalization of care.
Blood Testing for Concussion Diagnosis
The team of researchers at Western University and the Lawson Health Research Institute, led by Dr. Douglas Fraser, are bullish about their innovative concussion diagnosis test.
Using the new technique, blood can be drawn from a person up to 72 hours after their head injury. The test measures more than 170 brain chemicals that change when a brain injury is incurred.
“We take a vial of blood, we do the work in the lab, we run it through the mathematics and it tells us (if someone is) very likely to be concussed or very likely not concussed,” Mark Daley, associate vice president of research at Western University, told CTV News.
“The advantages are it takes away the guessing,” added Dr. Fraser. “So right away we would know if somebody has truly had a concussion.”
Should the accuracy of the test be confirmed, it would help doctors diagnose brain injuries in a much timelier manner than is common today. It could also inform injury victims of whether they should contact a brain injury lawyer.
The team that developed the test hopes it will become a widely-adopted diagnostic tool in the coming years.
Contact a brain injury lawyer at Neinstein Personal Injury Lawyers
Medical innovations are always reason for optimism, but even the most ground-breaking discoveries do little to improve the lives of people suffering from brain injuries today. If you or a member of your family has been injured in a serious accident, contact a Neinstein Personal Injury Lawyers brain injury lawyer right away. Our team can help you understand your legal situation and advise you on your road to recovery.
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