Municipal Lawyers

Archive for April, 2010

In today’s economy, more people have found it beneficial to do much of their own building when it comes to their house. Even when they aren’t doing their own building, however, it’s still often preferable to oversee the work being done on a daily basis.

This is especially true when it concerns the legal side of things, and when this is true, it may be time to get a construction lawyer. This article will touch upon a few of the more common instances in which having a construction lawyer will benefit you greatly.

First, any form of construction that you will do, including digging of plumbing and foundations, will fall under the civil aegis of construction law. This law is very specific as to how low you can dig and how high you can build, for instance.

This too is determined by the area that the building will take place. Zoning laws are very different in commercial, residential, and semi-commercial (mixed) zones, as well as in different city and county. Due to the complexity of this fundamental issue, a construction lawyer is highly recommended.

The reason for this is that a construction lawyer will know all of the proper and most expedient channels to getting permits and gaining the time of an on-site inspector, to name but a few sticky bureaucratic instances. This last subject, inspectors, is very important as there are a limited number of inspectors for each county or municipality and until they arrive to do their inspection and certify you for the next phase of building, all construction must stop.

Further, let’s say that you’ve hired contractors to do your building for you. There are numerous clauses that you may not think to include in your contract, and others that the construction lawyer of the contractors will include, and which may prove to be pitfalls for you if unaware of them. (This can include clauses detailing allowance for the contractors to make certain lengthy -and costly for you, delays; of unfair overtime charges; and of the contractors not being responsible for certain types of mistakes that they might make -all of which will be legal catastrophe for you.)

An even more serious problem would be if the contractor or sub-contractor sues you, for whatever reason. This is common amongst an unprincipled minority of contractors who will sue you if they themselves anticipate being sued, in hopes that they can scare you away from forcing any legal indemnity upon them. To make things worse, for a job which they have botched, and which you refuse to pay for, they can actually place a lien on your home. However, just having a construction lawyer will dissuade most dishonest contractors from even considering such shady actions.

As you can see, there are many pitfalls involved in building, whether from the ground up, in upkeep, or in remodeling. Notwithstanding this, there is no reason to fear or defer such building plans. Simply put, fear-based decisions will get you nowhere, whereas having a construction lawyer will put your house on the map.

1. Time limits: Also known as limitation periods, these are deadlines after which you CANNOT advance your child’s claim for compensation or after which it is more difficult to do so.

Examples:

a) Your insurance adjuster may tell you that your child has until his or her 20th birthday to sue. This may be technically true, if you want to forgo any claim by adult family members for care guidance and companionship lost as a result of the accident. For some cases, these can be large amounts!

b) Some claims against municipalities (Cities, Towns, etc.) are subject to an incredible 10-day limitation period. You will want to speak to a lawyer right away to see if this limit applies in your child’s case.

2) Insurance companies are not your child’s friend when it comes to an accident case.

They may be pleasant, but do not be fooled. We have encountered many parents who were dealing with the insurance adjuster directly and who were about to sign settlement documents when they realized they should get legal advice.

What happened? We advised them that the settlements proposed by the insurance companies were inadequate and would have badly under-compensated the injured child. You and your injured child have interests that conflict directly with the insurance companies. The insurer and the adjuster have a single mission: to maximize profits for the insurer by controlling costs.

Your interests are totally different: you want to make sure your child injured in Ontario in a car accident or other type of accident receives all the financial security, insurance benefits, medical and rehabilitation coverage and compensation for future lost income and earnings which he or she is entitled to get. This compensation includes money for pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, disability, scars, burns, fractured bones, brain or head injuries, spinal cord injury, paraplegia or quadriplegia.

An injury lawyer committed to representing children can help you deal fairly and negotiate properly with an insurance company.

What does this mean? For starters, apart from the police and medical support, you should not describe the accident to anyone, especially an insurance adjuster, without speaking to a lawyer first.

Will an adjuster ask you for a statement? You bet. Just say “No thank you. Not at this time.” Even if they show up at the hospital or at your home, it is okay to decline. You may feel awkward saying no, many people do. However, a few awkward moments are much better than compromising your child’s case.

3) If you wait, it is a lot more difficult for your lawyer to gather the required evidence.

When a child is injured in a car accident, the best evidence to show how the accident happened is collected right after the accident, for example, skid marks, crash debris and the vehicles themselves.

Did you know that some cars have “black boxes” similar to an airplane? If it is not too late, we can get a court order to preserve the black box before the car goes to the wrecking yard.

Think about a slip and fall accident that happens on the ice in February. It will be much more difficult to piece the evidence together in June than in the days surrounding the collision.

Witnesses are another important consideration. They have to be found– which is easier sooner rather than later. They also have to be interviewed, ideally before the insurance company reaches them.

Perhaps you wonder if you can manage these steps on your own. And maybe you can. But is that the best use of your time when you have an injured child to case for? An experienced lawyer will hire the investigators and engineers necessary to collect evidence that could make or break your child’s case.

4) Find out now, not later, how insurance companies and their lawyers can use your child’s medical records against your child.

By speaking to an experienced child injury lawyer you will learn how to talk to your child’s treating physicians. For example, many parents are so relieved that their child is walking and talking after a serious accident that they overlook other behavioral or emotional changes which could signal post-traumatic stress syndrome.

A pediatrician or family doctor may be looking for physical symptoms too and may not notice your child’s other symptoms. The result? If it is not written in the medical records from early on, the insurance company may suggest that any of these issues are not related to the accident and the child may miss an important assessment by a pediatric neuropsychologist or neurologist. These specialists can provide the proper diagnosis, care and rehabilitation. They can also make a big difference to your child’s case.

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