Areas of Practice
We offer a full range of services in insurance and personal litigation in the following areas:
- Property and Casualty insurance, including:
- fire losses
- water damage
- environmental claims including oil spills and mold infestation
- product liability
- construction liability
- contractor's liability and
- other commercial general liability claims
- Personal injury litigation including:
- automobile litigation
- statuatory accident benefits
- medical malpractice litigation
- occupier's liability
- disability insurance
- Insurance coverage disputes
- Fraudulent insurance claims
- Subrogation
- CGL and homeowner's policy claims
- Construction liens
Our lawyers have acted in many notable cases including:
- Successfully acting for the homeowners in a property damage matter involving a residential oil spill which went to trial and resulted in a jury award of 1.3 million dollars in damages including the largest general damage jury award in Canada for non-medical damages. This award was upheld by the Ontario Court of Appeal upon appeal
- Successfully representing insured defendants who did fire remediation work in the plaintiffs' house. Costs were awarded against the plaintiffs in the sum of 1.1 million dollars after a five month jury trial, with the jury assessing liability and damages at zero for our clients
- Acting for the Insurance Bureau of Canada in a successful appeal to the Court of Appeal of a decision that a backhoe was an automobile within the definition of the Insurance Act
- Acting for an insurance company in a fraudulent claim regarding alleged injuries sustained in an automobile accident by the plaintiff. The case was dismissed by the judge with costs against the plaintiff
- Successfully defending an insurance company's right to enter polygraph test results into evidence to refute allegations of bad faith in a property manner
- Successfully defending an insurance company on the basis of lack of insurable interest on stolen property, including at the Court of Appeal. This is a leading case on insurable interest in Ontario
- Defending an insured defendant through a two week trial on a claim of serious knee injury and lifelong income loss, with the resulting jury award beating the defendant's offer to settle amount
- Succeeding on a motion for summary judgement on the basis of excluded driver endorsement without executed endorsement on further policy renewals
- Successfully appealed to the Court of Appeal against an Application that found an excess insurer liable to a primary insurer for costs upon a settlement in excess of the primary insurance policy limits
- Successfully had claims dismissed on the basis of the expiration of limitation periods under the Highway Traffic Act and the Insurance Act
