On August 8, 2022 I was sitting in a long line of traffic on Hwy 7 west of Lyndsay as I waited to be signalled through some road construction. There were several cars ahead of me, several large asphalt trucks, signal or sign holders and other construction vehicles. As I sat, I noticed a car coming up from behind me and realized he was going to fast and that he was going to hit me. I pressed harder on my brake and braced for impact. My 18 year old daughter and her boyfriend were in the back seat, unaware of what was about to happen.
The driver of the car hit me with such force that even with my brakes on, he pushed my car forward. I realized I was going to hit the car in front of me and released my brake so that I could try and maneuver around the car in front of me. Despite my attempts, I clipped the back right quarter panel of the car in front of me with the left front bumper of my car. In the process, the impact broke the left front tire off my car and I lost all ability to steer my car or move it any further.
My daughter felt an immediate shock and discomfort from the impact, her boyfriend suffered no injuries at any time and my injuries would not be made apparent for some time yet.
After being assessed by EMT, we were able to get a drive back to the hospital in Barrie for xrays and scans. The scans showed whiplash, trauma to my neck, shoulders and back. Thankfully, my daughter only had similar injuries.
My daughter was not able to return to work for the remainder of the summer due to headaches. She went on to have physiotherapy and discontinued treatment.
I am a teacher and was on summer break. I definitely was hurt but had no idea until I returned to work just how much. Once I was in my workplace and the demands of my job were on me, I discovered that I was not ok after all. I had a concussion, back and neck pain, concentration and memory issues all of which interfered with my ability to function properly at work or maintain a normal life after work. I would come home so exhausted, I would immediately seek sleep to recover from the day.
After being assessed at the clinic of my insurance choosing, I was given physio and massage treatments and went on a leave from work to help with my recovery. Once my benefits began to run out I could not afford the reduction in pay to become more significant and had no choice, I returned to work. My headaches, exhaustion and pain continued. My insurance company began to refuse treatment plans and I sought legal advice on the matter.
My lawyer pushed back on the insurance company to have me placed in the next level of injury. This resulted in an approval of another treatment plan. I metered the treatments out, trying to make them last. Please remember, as a teacher, I have some benefits and these were used up before the company was required to pay for any of my treatments. The adjuster then refused any additional treatment plans.
After more meetings with my lawyer, we finally filed with the license tribunal to have them cover the costs of some assessments. However, my lawyers seemed to have not bothered to include the refusal of coverage of my treatment plans. Apparently that will need to be an additional file, which to date has not occured. They also began the process of suing the person who hit me. According to my lawyer, both of these filings were delayed due to the legal assistant filing information for both suits incorrectly, ultimately delaying the claims by seven months.
My most current situation is that the license tribunal hearing is at the end of September 2025 but will not benefit me personally in any manner. The repayment from that will be for the lawyers’ costs. The suit against the driver was supposed to go to mediation in January 2026 but has now been delayed until June 2026. This is despite my own lawyer having told me the original dates and his assistant trying to tell me it was the date assigned. I know this is not correct.
Things to note:
I have paid for an upgraded policy whereby I have access to up to one million dollars in coverage for treatment and such. Clearly, I have not remotely received this amount.
I was compliant in using the clinic of choice of the insurance company.
I was compliant to participating in a series of assessments for cognitive and physical function.
I have been compliant to the “process” of using benefits and requesting them.
This particular adjuster is well known in the treatment world as someone who refuses plans.
My lawyers’ office have caused significant delays in this ‘process’ due to incorrect filing or what is in reality what appears to be that they simply did not file at all.
My lawyers have yet to file for a review of the refusals for my treatment plans.
I have learned that adjusters earn bonuses based on what they save the company in payouts. This means that they are financially motivated to harm clients by refusing them justified treatments well within their payout range. This is a massive conflict of interest as I believed that the insurance company worked for me and on my behalf. Otherwise, what have I been paying for all this time?
I have also learned that law offices use the term “the process” to hide incompetence and complacency to a system that they also financially benefit from and unnecessarily complicate. Not filing paperwork as required or communicated should result in some sort of penalty to them.
M.B.