In southern Ontario’s SW, the mix of farming communities, residential neighborhoods and commercial transport corridors creates a patchwork of ecosystems that can be pretty chaotic. You’ve got farming families living next to busy highways, which can be a real shock for those who live there when they’ve got some kind of accident or close call. For people who live in places like Essex County, it’s a constant problem: they’re caught off guard by the danger of accidents whenever they’re out and about, whether that’s driving to Windsor for work or just popping into town for a few errands.
We’re here to help those who’ve been hurt while going about their daily lives. We’ve got a long list of clients who’ve been in all sorts of common situations, going to work, doing farm work, running errands in town, and they’ve been hurt in some pretty avoidable ways. That’s what our lawyers specialize in: helping people who’ve been injured because of someone else’s fault get the help they need. Spinal injuries require long-term care and support. We support individuals with spinal cord injury claims to help secure proper compensation.
Our first step is usually a free consultation which really is just a chance for you to get some sense of what’s going on and what your rights are. You can come and talk to us about what happened, and we’ll give you a steer on how much you might be owed, all for free, with no strings attached. We want to make sure that people in all parts of the province can get good legal advice, whether they live in the country or the city.
Now, this area’s got its own special challenges when it comes to accidents. You’ve got farm equipment, seasonal farm workers, rural roads, it’s a whole different ball game to an urban accident case. Throw in all the different kind of accidents that can happen on a farm, tractors, grain injuries, livestock mishaps, truck collisions, and you can see why it takes some particular skills to give people the help they need. And then there’s the seasonal nature of farming, which can be a real money problem for families who rely on the cash from their farm to get by. Losing someone due to negligence is devastating. We represent families in wrongful death claims with compassion and legal experience.
When we first meet with a new client, we take a really close look at everything connected with the accident, medical records, accident reports, witness statements, the whole shebang, to get a clear picture of what happened and how serious your injuries are. That way we can give you a good idea of whether it’s worth going to court, and what kind of compensation you might be entitled to.
There’s a lot of big trucks moving around in this part of the world, because it’s right on some of the busiest shipping routes and border crossings in the world. That causes its own set of problems, and it needs a special set of skills to sort them out. When it comes to sorting out a personal injury case, you need to know the rules that govern the commercial transport industry, or at least be able to find someone who does.
Things get interesting when the insurance companies come calling, usually pretty quickly after an accident. They’re not really interested in getting you a fair deal, they’re just trying to get the best deal for themselves. So, we tell our clients to be really careful when they’re talking to the insurance companies, don’t give them a recorded statement, and don’t agree to any settlement offers without talking to a lawyer first.
Small towns in Essex County can be nightmare places after an accident. The emergency services can be hard to find, specialist medical facilities are often a long way off, and it’s not always easy to find witnesses to back up your story. All of these things make it harder to sort out what’s happened and deal with the legal fallout, but we’ve been there and done that before, and we know how to handle it.
If you’ve been in an accident, you need to keep an eye on the clock, in Ontario, you’ve got two years from the date of the accident to file a lawsuit. But there are all sorts of reasons why that timescale might change, so it’s worth talking to a lawyer to figure out what’s what.
At Longo Lawyers, we care about getting to the bottom of how the accident has affected your life and your bank balance, and then we explain how we work, which means you only pay us if we win your case. We’re here to listen if you’re having money problems, or if you just want some decent legal guidance.