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If all the insurers had their way, there would be lots of eligibility rules for anyone that hoped to get compensated for a personal injury. Fortunately, those same insurers cannot find a way to restrict payments to all of the company’s policy holders. Still, there are times when an awarded claimant faces certain obstacles. With the changes to the Ontario Disability Support Program, things have become better for the accidental injury claimants.
One obstacle: placement of caps for certain injuries
In Ontario, the law forbids the disbursement of awarded funds above a certain amount. That capping of the benefits can restrict the amount of money used to compensate an accident victim with only minor injuries. It can also place an obstacle on the awarding of benefits to someone that gets involved in more than one accident within a short period of time.
For example, suppose that someone that is recovering from an earlier accident happens to be riding in a car that gets rear-ended. In that case, the rider in the car that got hit could suffer real damages. Still, if he or she were still getting benefits, then could the cap on the awarded amount deprive that specific victim of anticipated compensation?
The answer is it may, or it may not. The answer would depend on what the law allows. Does it allow the removal of benefits that were going to the victim, the person that has again become a victim?
A second obstacle: government’s ability to count some benefits as calculated income
When personal injury lawyer in North Bay encourage a client to sue the person that has injured that same client, those same lawyers usually say that the recipient of the claimed benefits cannot be taxed. That is not entirely true. There are times when the government can tax such a victim.Benefits cover losses. If the victim of a personal injury has lost some income, due to his or her inability to get to work, then that should be returned in the form of benefits. Yet those specific benefits can be used to calculate the injured victim’s income. For that reason, any one of them fails to qualify as SABS under the Family Law Act are also exempt and will not get taxed.
There are three general types of benefits that fall into that category. One is the replacement benefit. As indicated, it replaces the income that had been given to a once healthy and gainfully employed man or woman.
A second is the non-earner benefits. Those are awarded to victims that were not employed, but who do need some source of income. An injured student might qualify for non-earner benefits. That same injured student could suddenly learn that he or she can be taxed on the same benefits. A third benefit is the one that covers past or future loss of income. As indicated, it functions in the role of a steady income. For that reason, it cannot be excluded from the requirement that all income can get taxed.