DAY ONE | JANUARY 25, 2010
8:00 Registration Opens – Coffee Served
8:30 Opening Remarks from the Co-Chairs
J. Patrick Brown (Plaintiff)
Partner
McLeish Orlando LLP
Eric K. Grossman (Defence)
Partner
Zarek Taylor Grossman Hanrahan LLP
8:45 Navigating the Waters: Important Procedural Rule and Case Law Updates
Kate Mazzucco (Plaintiff)
Associate
McLeish Orlando LLP
Kadey B.J. Schultz, LL.M. (Defence)
Hughes Amys LLP
- Examining the changes to the civil litigation regime as they relate to personal injury law: the new rules and their implications
- Comprehending the new discovery rules
- Re-visiting discovery techniques: gaining strategic preparation tips from both a plaintiff and defence angle
- Examining the new “relevance test”
- Adequately preparing your client for examinations for discovery
- Gaining insight on the allowable limits of information sharing: reviewing the case law on production obligations
- Understanding how the changes will alter trial procedures
- Changes to summary judgment rules under the new regime: are these applicable to threshold motions?
- Looking at how the new rule changes will affect ADR strategies
- How will the process change?
- Techniques for a smooth transition
- Tips on how to appropriately manage files
- Bill 198: Reform
- Where does it stand?
- Changes to the threshold: working up the claim to meet the threshold
- Analyzing the current law: other recent case law updates and future trends
10:00 Settlement: Effective Practices to Achieve Success
David Hayward (Plaintiff)
Partner
Martin & Hillyer
Eric K. Grossman (Defence)
Partner
Zarek Taylor Grossman Hanrahan LLP
- Risk Assessment: is there a right or a wrong time to settle?
- Let’s talk quantum: finding the balance
- Preparing your file for settlement: from both a plaintiff and defence perspective
- Gearing up for settlement: steps to take
- Maximizing the chances of obtaining a mutually agreeable resolution
- Interest, costs and disbursements as barriers to settlement: strategizing to minimize these and to avoid costly mistakes
- Preparing and drafting a proper settlement offer
- Critical case law analysis: where does the law stand?
- Proper Rule 49 Offers: Sullivan v. Laudon and its fundamental affects on Pierringer and/or Mary Carter Agreements
- Dealing with 11th hour negotiations: problems and practical solutions
- Court approval of settlements involving minors and incompetents
- Current case law and future trends
- Strategies and solutions to expedite this process
10:45 Networking Coffee Break
11:00 Interactive Critical Case Study on Settlement & Negotiation in Action: MOCK MEDIATION
David Hayward (Plaintiff)
Partner
Martin & Hillyer
Phil R. Thorpe, B.Sc., FCIP, CSSC
Principal, McKellar Structured Settlements Inc.
Eric K. Grossman (Defence)
Partner
Zarek Taylor Grossman Hanrahan LLP
Jon T. Fidler, B.Sc., LL.B., C.Med. (Mediator)
Partner
Malach + Fidler Mediation & Arbitration Services
This intensive learning experience is a must attend for all. Obtain practical strategies and valuable tips from the experts. This panel of experienced litigators and settlement professionals has been assembled to guide you through a realistic fact scenario to a win win legal resolution for all parties involved. Learn about the role of the structured settlements and how they can facilitate negotiation and settlement of all types of claims. All panellists will provide a thorough debriefing regarding the process, issues involved and strategies for negotiation, with a special focus on the intricate complexities of the accident benefit-torts relationship and its impact on settlement. Come master the approach to a successful negotiation.
This session will leave you with:
- Practical negotiation strategies
- Tips on how to avoid barriers to bargaining
- Various settlement techniques
- Streamlining Tips: which will allow you to ensure a prompt settlement and minimized costs
- Improved mediation skills!
12:30 Networking Luncheon for Delegates & Speakers
LUNCHTIME ADDRESS: Cross-Canada Update: Constitutional Challenges Current and Future Trends
James D. Cuming (Plaintiff)
Partner
Cuming & Gillespie (Alberta)
Raymond F. Wagner (Plaintiff)
Wagner & Associates (Nova Scotia)
- Key Recent Constitutional Challenges
- Taking a look at Morrow v. Zhang (Alberta Court of Appeal)
- Predicting where Alberta is headed with respect to the cap on damages for minor injuries; will it follow Ontario?
- Nova Scotia constitutional challenges
- How do these differ from Ontario’s trends?
- National Trends and Impacts
1:45 What’s That Damage Really Worth? Recent Developments and Key Considerations
Moderator
Paul Tushinski
Partner
Dutton Brock LLP
Panellists
Jack J. Fireman Q.C. (Plaintiff)
Partner
Fireman Wolfe LLP
Dale Orlando (Plaintiff)
Partner, McLeish Orlando LLP
Sheldon Gilbert, Q.C. (Defence)
Partner
Gilbert, Wright & Kirby LLP
John A. Soule (Defence)
Partner
Thoman Soule LLP
Whether you are settling a claim or litigating one, staying up to date on the most recent developments in damages awards is essential in order to obtain the most favourable settlement for your client or to win your next personal injury trial. Acquire invaluable insights from a panel of experienced litigators who will provide critical analysis on the most recent case law on damages. Plus! Learn how to gauge damages and structure settlements accordingly. Claims adjusters and examiners: don’t miss out on the significant updates respecting the range of various damages awards.
Examine case scenarios on plaintiff entitlement in both the torts and accident benefits context. Learn to assess damages dealing with:
- General damages awards
- Housekeeping and handyman services, loss of financial co-dependency and other non health care pecuniary damages
- The range of awards for non-pecuniary damages
- Damages awards in CAT impairment claims
- Punitive and aggravated damages awards: looking at when they are awarded and the quantum of these awards
3:00 Networking Coffee Break
3:15 Effective Use of Demonstrative Evidence
James L. Vigmond (Plaintiff)
Partner
Oatley Vigmond LLP
C. Kirk Boggs (Defence)
Partner
Lerners LLP
- Case law update: recent and pending cases
- Understanding when courts are permitting versus disallowing demonstrative evidence: what weight is it given?
- Assessing the rights of both the plaintiff and defendant
- For plaintiff counsel: analysing the effective use of demonstrative evidence at mediation
- Determining the best strategies and techniques to effectively present the evidence so that it augments your client’s position and works in your favour
- Overcoming traps and pitfalls
- Weighing the costs and benefits of critical fact disclosure and its impacts to your client’s position
- Identifying what to disclose at mediation versus what to hold back in the event of trial
- For defence counsel: successfully challenging this evidence; a how-to-guide
- Accident Reconstruction Evidence
- Understanding the technology used to create this evidence
- Acquiring and preserving this evidence
- Knowing how and when to use it
- Exploring the controversy surrounding the videotaping of defence medical examinations
- Balancing the competing interests of plaintiffs and defendants
4:15 Dealing With Claims Involving Multiple Potential Entitlements
Patrick Mazurek (Plaintiff)
Principal
Patrick Mazurek Barristers
Sandi Smith (Defence)
Associate
Gilbert, Wright & Kirby LLP
- Identifying all potentially relevant entitlements, including: Auto AB; STD/LTD; Debt Specific Disability; Life Insurance; Family Protection Coverage; WSIB; MVACF; CPP; ODSP; CICB; OHIP; Human Rights.
- Identifying all potential jurisdictional issues:
- i.e. Out of Province Accidents/Entitlements
- Campos v. Sun Life: WSIB and labour issues
- Examining multiple accident scenarios
- Understanding the substantive issues:
- Sorting Priority of Obligations/Entitlements
- What gets deducted from what?
- What is subrogated to what?
- Vanderkop v. Personal Ins.
- Managing procedural issues:
- Sorting priority of initial/interim obligations to pay
- Interface of the Auto and WSIB schemes (Sumal v. American Home Ins.)
- Choice of forum
- Consolidation of proceedings
- Evidentiary issues
- Res Judicata
- Delving into settlement, mediation and trial strategies
5:15 Co-Chairs’ Recap – Conference Adjourns
DAY TWO | JANUARY 26, 2010
8:15 Coffee Served
8:45 Opening Remarks from the Co-Chairs
9:00 Negotiating with Adjusters Directly: Why Don’t Claims Settle Before They go to Counsel?
Norman McGlashan, BA., CIP., CRM.
Client Service Manager
President
Ontario Insurance Adjusters Association
David Morin (Plaintiff)
Partner
Will Barristers
David F. Murray (Defence)
Partner
Adair Morse LLP
- Understanding the difference in dealing with independent adjusters and captive adjusters
- Exploring why files do not settle at an early stage
- How and whether this could be addressed
- Managing insurers and their clients’ expectations
- Do’s and don’t’s of negotiating with adjusters
- Understanding plaintiff counsel and their clients’ expectations
- Balancing competing interests
- Identifying the current policy coverage issues and ways to navigate them
- Looking at insurance coverage and indemnification for losses: meaning of the word incurred, post-Monks v. ING
- Formulating a settlement so that it falls within the parameters of what could have realistically transpired at trial
9:45 Advancing or Challenging an Invisible Disability Claim
Alf Kwinter (Plaintiff)
Partner
Singer, Kwinter
Jim Davidson (Defence)
Partner
MacMillan Rooke Boeckle LLP
- Understanding why and how invisible disability claims differ from other claims
- Proving or Disproving these claims
- Techniques for plaintiff counsel: how to advance a successful invisible disability claim
- Strategies for insurance companies and defence counsel: how to successfully challenge an invisible disability claim
- Learning about the evidence requirements
- Dealing with the presence of other conditions
- The importance of experts
- Reviewing compensation criteria requirements for invisible disability claims
- A critical look at recent case law: how do the courts treat these claims?
- Looking at Degennaro v. Oakville Trafalgar: why did the courts grant the largest chronic pain award in the country?
- Assessing whether these cases ought to be heard by judge or jury?
- Where is the case law headed?
10:45 Networking Coffee Break
11:00 Strategic Use of Experts: The Balancing Act
J. Patrick Brown (Plaintiff)
Partner
McLeish Orlando LLP
Robert Rogers (Defence)
Partner
Evans Philp LLP
Philip Nafekh, CA, CBV
Partner
Principe Nafekh Ltd.
Litigation and Valuation Services
The proper use of an expert witness can heavily strengthen your client’s position. On the other hand, the wrong expert or improper use of one could be severely detrimental. Deciding to, finding and using experts requires a skilful act of balance. Often times, although the use of an expert would be favourable, the costs involved are too high. Come and learn about when to use an expert and how to select the most effective one. Get the views on how to minimize expenses from plaintiff and defence counsel. Plus! Hear directly from an expert.
- Determining when to use an expert, what type of expert to use and how to select the best expert
- Learning how to effectively use an expert to enhance your client’s position
- Best practices for plaintiff counsel to prove a claim
- Tips for defence counsel and insurance companies to disprove a plaintiff’s claim
- Avoiding the ‘hired gun’ syndrome
- Battle of the Experts: evaluating your options when you do receive a ‘hired gun’ report: should one react with a ‘hired gun’ report of one’s own?
- Prepping an expert: steps to take
- Evaluating expert biases and weighing the costs and benefits
- Eliciting critical evidence from your expert to increase your chances of success
- Assessing an expert’s credibility
- Reading, understanding, interpreting and challenging expert reports
- Comprehending how plaintiff counsel read and use expert reports
- Learning how insurance companies and defence counsel use and interpret expert reports
- Avoiding common and costly mistakes when using experts
- Dealing with privilege, ethical concerns and privacy matters when working with experts
12:15 Networking Luncheon for Delegates & Speakers
1:30 Future Care Claims: Where are they Now? Where are they Headed?
Michael L. Bennett (Plaintiff)
Partner
Thomson, Rogers
Brian J. E. Brock, Q.C. (Defence)
Partner
Dutton Brock LLP
Jamie Campbell
Director
Rehabilitation Services, Rehab First Inc.
- Taking another look at the case law
- Learning what is currently being allowed/disallowed
- Identifying the appropriate quantum
- Understanding how courts are coming to their decisions
- Analysing future trends and their potential impacts
- Maximizing your chances of success by understanding either how to properly present a future care claim or effectively challenge one
- Building a future care cost claim from the bottom-up!
- Gaining insight on how to simplify the intricacies of practices and procedures in claim preparation
- Knowing what facts to include/exclude in a report: review of applicable medical expenses
- Reviewing the issues around life expectancy
- Effectively reviewing and challenging the report
- Assessing the potential exposure to insurance companies
- Plaintiff counsel: learning to use this to your advantage
- Defence counsel: learning to protect against this and minimize exposure
2:30 CAT Claims: Current Developments & Trendspotting
Andrew C. Murray (Plaintiff)
Partner
Lerners LLP
Jennifer Griffiths (Defence)
Partner
Zarek Taylor Grossman Hanrahan LLP
Lawrence Blackman
Directors’ Delegate
Financial Services Commission of Ontario
- Successfully advancing or defeating a CAT claim
- Understanding and meeting the 55% threshold: the current law and where it’s headed
- Analyzing CAT designations: has there been an expansion on their scope?
- Reviewing the criteria for determining CAT eligibility
- Examining the effects of pre-existing injuries and combinations of impairments
- Identifying which experts should comprise the catastrophic evaluation team: what is the role of those experts?
- Examining the way in which a “consensus” opinion on the CAT question ought to be developed
- Deciding which evaluation methodology is “correct”
- The uses and abuses of sections 24 and 42, particularly in the catastrophic context
3:45 Networking Coffee Break
4:00 Dealing with Soft Tissue Claims
Todd J. McCarthy
Partner
Flaherty Dow Elliott & McCarthy
- Learning why and how soft tissue claims differ from other claims
- Strategies in advancing successful soft tissue claims (plaintiff) or defeating them (defence)
- Reviewing compensation criteria requirements for soft tissue claims
- Examining the definition of “serious and permanent” injuries: falling within the definition
4:45 Why Litigate? Let’s MEDIATE: Tips, Traps & Trends
Jonathan Flanders, B.Sc., B.C.L., LL.B.
Fellow of the International Academy of Mediators
Senior Mediator, Arbitrator
DRS Dispute Resolution Services LP
Ivan Luxenberg (Barrister-at-Law & Mediator)
Partner
Malach + Fidler Mediation & Arbitration Services
Mediation is a viable alternative to costly litigation when all parties approach it in good faith. The resolutions obtainable at mediation are solely confined by the imagination and willingness of the parties involved. This session will provide practice tips that will assist all parties involved in obtaining prompt settlements, allowing for mutually satisfying, cost effective and timely resolutions.
- Timing
- Assessing the best time for the mediation: factors to consider
- Exploring the impact of legislative changes
- Leading Up To Mediation
- Improving your mediation brief
- Selecting the right mediator
- Practice tips!
- Traps to avoid!
- At Mediation
- Principled offers: pros & cons
- Best negotiation strategies: avoiding barriers to negotiation
5:30 Co-Chairs’ Closing Remarks
Conference Concludes
Conference Details
