Do you have "slip & fall" lawyers in Canada?

[Shagbark Hickory]

Greetings from America.

I was wondering if you have what we refer to as "slip & fall" lawyers or "ambulance chasers".

That's a major industry down here. There are ads for these lawyers all over the phone book and they advertise a lot on tv during the day.
The premise I guess is if you get injured at work or in a store these lawyers try to pursue damages for the medical costs.

But in Canada, where everyone has healthcare and the culture is more laid back and probably less litigious, I wondered if there was any demand for these kinds of lawyers there.

[laundry_queen]

1. From what I understand

after one itty bitty law course, is that there are required ingredients for suing for negligence. A missing ingredient in any of these will often lead to a dismissal. The ingredients are that a duty of care is owed to the plaintiff (ie, keeping the sidewalks free of ice), breach of the duty (ie, ice was there for awhile, no attempt made to remove it) and finally causation and damages. If someone slips and falls, but doesn't get hurt, there are no grounds for damages. If there is an injury, and damage, it must be a direct result of the careless conduct (ie if someone was wearing high heels instead of snow boots, that could be dismissed as it cannot be proven that but for the conduct of the defendant, the plaintiff would have never fallen).

Now, I'm not sure what the 'tests' are in American law for negligence, but I think it's obvious that the damages awarded here would be substantially less simply because of our universal health care. Also, the court limits punitive damages to intentional torts and those have an upper $ limit. General damages (ie, loss of income or pain and suffering) may be substantial, but generally even the winning party must pay some of their own legal expenses. So it is quite cost prohibitive to sue unless you are assured a win and a large amount of damages.

So, I have never seen an ad for lawyers like that anywhere but the yellow pages, and usually that is only for motor vehicle accidents. Here in Alberta we have private insurance so we do have some 'ambulance chasers' but in places like Manitoba where their provincial auto insurance has an upper limit on the amount that can be awarded it's less common. I know the slip and fall type lawyers must exist, since even though we have universal health care, we don't have government prescription coverage. So someone who had an injury requiring large amounts of expensive medication may have a good case.

Okay, probably more than you wanted to know. Hope that helped some. Maybe we have a lawyer or paralegal here who knows more than I do that could join in and/or correct me :)

[Shagbark Hickory]

3. Fascinating. Thank you. nt.

[murphyj87]

2. In 60 years, most of them in Canada....

I can't say that I've ever seen an ad for such a thing in the media, nor have I known anyone in that time what had sued or been sued in Canada. The one suit that I know about was for medical malpractice, of a surgeon who managed to tear the achilles tendon during a knee replacement surgery, but I don't think that's what you mean. In my experience over 60 years, I've heard of people falling, but have never heard of anyone ever being sued as a result.

[Shagbark Hickory]

4. That's amazing.

It sounds like Canada really takes care of its people.

[Bragi]

5. A couple of points

Yes, there are personal injury lawyers and lawsuits in Canada. However, because our health costs are already covered, and because Canadian courts tend to be very stingy in how much they will award anyone for damages due to negligence, personal injury litigation is nowhere near the big business it is in the U.S.

My other point is that the limits placed on litigation in Canada are not much of a problem because our governments are less disinclined that US governments to regulate dangerous practices by corporations.

In the U.S, the high cost of litigation and awards often serve to smarten up companies and make them adopt safer practices. There's nothing like a $300 million award from a Mississippi jury to convince a fast food company to not hand out dangerously hot coffee it hands in a drive-thru.

In Canada, we tend to get the same results through direct regulatory activity rather than indirectly through litigation. I think there are good arguments that can be made for either approach.

[applegrove]

6. In Canada I think you have to pay your lawyers up front...not out of any winning. This

plus a less selfish culture means that we just don't sue nearly as much.