Ottawa Govt. Cuts Accident Victims' Benefits In Half - Is This Right?
Ottawa’s best personal injury lawyer Brenda Hollingsworth was interviewed about the decrease in medical rehabilitation benefits to seriously injured car accident victims that will come into effect beginning in the summer of 2010. The Ontario government will be reducing medical rehabilitation benefits from $100,000 to $50,000 over ten years for non-catastrophically injured victims. Many lawyers have remained silent on this topic, but Ms. Hollingsworth feels it is important to bring it to light in order to help defend injury victims’ rights. In the interview, she expresses her concerns for accident victims who have suffered serious injuries, but will run out of rehabilitation funds due to the government’s reduction plan.
Ms. Hollingsworth notes that this decrease in benefits will have a far-reaching effect. For example, if someone suffers serious orthopedic injuries in an accident, but the injuries do not result in quadriplegia or paraplegia, the victim may run out of medical rehabilitation benefits. The reduction also impacts victims in other ways. When a person is seriously injured, he/she may need to make home modifications, such as lowering the counters or installing a stair lift, to accommodate his/her injury. These costs come out of the rehabilitation benefits pot. However, $50,000 over ten years will not go far in helping pay for such expenses.
In addition to slashing the benefits package in half, the government is imposing new regulations. The government will now include the cost of insurer assessments in the victim’s pot. That means that when a victim’s insurance company assesses the persons injuries, the cost will come out of the benefits package. Ms. Hollingsworth notes that this can quickly deplete the benefit pot. In her interview, she mentions her client that has already spent $20,000 in medical rehabilitation benefits, and an additional $17,000 in insurance assessments. Under the new government reduction, this client would almost be out of benefits.
Ms. Hollingsworth is a personal injury attorney in Ottawa, Canada, who works diligently to protect the rights of accident an injury victims. She offers superlative legal representation to her clients, and her expert knowledge in the law has made her one of Ottawa’s premier injury lawyers.
