FACEBOOK and other Social Media websites:

You should be aware that in the context of litigation all postings to your Facebook and other online social mediums may need to be produced to the insurer. Accordingly, you should be sensitive as to how postings related to your day to day life may be interpreted by an insurer.

SURVEILLANCE

Insurers routinely retain the services of investigation firms to conduct surveillance on claimants. As long as they are not on private property they are legally permitted to engage in public surveillance activities. You should not be alarmed if it comes to your attention that you are being observed. Surveillance is only useful to the extent that it directly contradicts the evidence of claimants with respect to what they say they can and cannot do in terms of their activities of daily living. Therefore, it is important to always be able to distinguish between activities that cannot be performed at all or activities that can be performed with pain or limitations.

INSURER EXAMINATIONS

We will retain experts to assess you and provide reports with respect to the nature and extent of your injuries. The insurance company also will have the right to send you to insurance examinations. You should keep in mind that this doctor is a doctor retained by the insurance company for the sole purpose of assessing your injuries and providing a report to the insurer. This doctor is not a treating doctor and has no interest in helping you get better. As the interests of the insurer are generally adverse to your own, you should take the following steps to protect your interests in the event that the doctor is eventually called to testify at a trial.

1) Keep notes as to the length of time of the interview and assessment and any relevant details. Please feel free to provide our office with a copy of these notes.

2) Whenever possible be accompanied by a family member.

3) Notify our office immediately if anything unexpected happens i.e. an observer from the insurer shows up or you find out unexpectedly the interview is going to be videotaped.

TREATMENT

There will come a time after your accident that you will have to go to treatment for your injuries. When your health care provider suggests physiotherapy, massage therapy, chiropractic treatment or anything else that may be proposed in the course of your rehabilitation, you must make sure that on your visit the facility submits a treatment plan to your insurance company. This outlines the specifics of what the provider is suggesting for your treatment and the cost of this treatment. Your insurer needs to respond to this treatment plan within 10 days, either with an approval or denial. If you are approved then the treatment can proceed without cost to you. If there is doubt from your insurer then they may want you to attend an insurer’s examination. If after the insurer’s examination you are denied by your insurer, then we will file for mediation. If you decide after being denied by your insurer to proceed with the recommended treatment then it is highly likely you will be responsible for this cost.

As per the Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule changes which came into effect September 1, 2010, there are many changes to your insurance, which you should familiarize yourself with.

Rule of thumb, if your insurance company has not approved treatment then the costs of the treatments, if you proceed, may fall into your lap.

LEGAL ADVICE

The role of legal administrative assistants and paralegals in the firm is not to provide legal advice and accordingly, if a client has a legal question or a question about the carriage of his or her file, they should contact the lawyers directly. The legal administrative assistants and paralegals work under the supervision of the law firm and implement the legal instructions and decisions made about a file by the lawyers.

SETTLEMENT LOAN COMPANIES

Being injured frequently causes financial hardship and there are finance companies who will advance funds to you on the basis that the law firm will ensure that they are repaid from settlement proceeds. We do not recommend these arrangements as the interest rates are high and the amounts advanced are not generally high enough to be of remedy for any long term financial difficulties pending the resolution of the litigation. You should know that should you decide to enter into one of these arrangements Morell Kelly p.c. will not be involved. You will need to retain your own counsel to provide an opinion as to the value of the case and to provide you with independent legal advice in connection with the advance.

CONDUCT

We understand that our clients who have been injured are going through one of the most stressful times of their lives. The insurance company may not be paying benefits to which you believe you are entitled to receive, you may be in pain and be experiencing delays in receiving treatment or medical interventions, you may be off work and experiencing financial difficulties.

At Morell Kelly p.c., we have a zero tolerance policy toward verbal abuse which would include swearing, yelling screaming etc.

At Morell Kelly p.c we are committed to treating you in a respectful and professional matter. Please let us (Lisa or Bruce) know if you have any concerns about the treatment you receive from any member of our team and we will work to resolve it directly with the team member and will take appropriate disciplinary action if warranted. By the same token we cannot allow our staff to be treated disrespectfully by clients and if there is an incident of verbal abuse this will be a reasonable basis for us to terminate our retainer with you.

PRODUCTIONS

In the course of litigation the claimant is obligated to produce any documents that may be relevant to the assessment of their damages claimed. In order to fulfill production requests we will be having you sign a number of releases which will allow us to obtain the information that we will require in the course of our representation of you in the law suit. Please do not hesitate to contact us should you have any questions or concerns.

SETTLEMENT OF YOUR CLAIM

Our objective is to obtain a reasonable settlement of your claim within a reasonable period of time. In our experience, being involved in litigation is stressful for clients and only with a resolution of the matter by way of monetary compensation are injured persons able to move forward and return to as normal a life as is possible.

Accordingly, we will at all times be working to advance your claim and procure a settlement offer for your consideration.  We will advise you with respect to the reasonableness of any offers.

Sometimes settlement is not possible and it may be necessary to proceed to trial. We will base upon our experience and a risk/benefit analysis whether a matter should proceed to trial. If at any stage in the process you disagree with our assessment as to the value of your file or as to our handling of your file we encourage you to consider obtaining different representation and we will facilitate the transfer of your file at no charge to your new lawyer.

COMMUNICATION WITH OUR OFFICE

One of the most common complaints made by clients about their lawyers is that their lawyers do not return their calls. While we endeavor to return all calls from our clients, sometimes calls are not returned. Most often this is because an answer to a specific inquiry is being sourced. We appreciate it if clients can help us keep the call level to a manageable volume by sending emails rather than calling if the matter is not urgent.