Edward Bergeron | Kingston Personal Injury Lawyer

Leave your worries at our door. That\'s what we tell each client at the outset. We recently settled a case for a forty-five year-old nurse with two brilliant daughters. As a sole income earner, she carried the weight of getting them launched; tuition, books and roof over their heads. They both had jobs but with the cost of education today, ends were barely meeting. When a fully-loaded carpet cleaning van rear-ended her car at full speed, her nursing career, and her income, came to an end. Through the careful selection of physiatry, psychology and vocational rehabilitation experts we were able to convince her long term disability insurer to pay the benefits it owed. Through persistence and effort, we were able to convince the liability insurer for the carpet cleaning van to pay fair compensation for her loss of career, medical expenses and loss of enjoyment of life. Injury seldom happens to an individual. One injury usually makes waves that the whole family feels. Here, we were able to restore a loving mother\'s power to do what was most important to her - help her daughters realize their dreams of a university education.

Patience. Each of the lawyers at Bergeron Clifford LLP endorse our value system. We belief that persistence, tenacity and humility allow clients to navigate the claims process with dignity. We have never gone searching for a lawyer. They find us. Practicing law with both tenacity and humility yields results for clients that other law firms cannot match.

A good lawyer has intelligence, honesty and integrity. A great lawyer has not only those features but can listen - he's not in love with the sound of his own voice. An injured person looking for a lawyer must find a lawyer with the integrity to counsel against bringing a claim in the right circumstances. A great lawyer knows that the client pays an emotional and psychological cost during the claims process and safeguards that client against paying too high a price.

Local knowledge is vitally important to the success of an injury claim. Insurance adjusters, physicians, therapists and judges work cooperatively with lawyers they know and see in the community. Choosing the best care team for an injured person requires intimate knowledge of not just some, but of ALL the care providers in a community. Only local counsel have that broad base of knowledge.

A free initial phone consultation is like looking out the window of a plane. You can describe the basic topography below, but not in detail. During an initial free phone consultation, we will provide a view as to whether your injury claim is likely to succeed or not. In many cases, we can provide a definitive view on liability (who is responsible) but not necessarily on causation (whether the impairments are actually caused by the subject trauma). We can provide a rough estimate of the damages and the describe the steps necessary to prove them and win your case. We can estimate the time your claim is likely to take. The process is slow but for good reasons. It\'s important for clients to know about the steps involved and how long they will take.

We are information junkies. We want all the information that we can get at the outset. The more information we have, the better able we are to provide an accurate view of your potential case. The one thing we must have is the name of the at-fault party. This is required to conduct a conflict check. It is helpful during an initial consultation to have the motor vehicle accident report (if a car crash), photographs of the scene (if a trip/slip and fall), property damage photos, a timeline of events, medical records where available.

Injury law is all we do. Period.

Restoring hope is the most rewarding aspect of my job. Injury can strip the flesh from your dreams. Careful preparation and attention to detail lead to satisfying claims and trial results. Perhaps money can\'t buy happiness, but I\'ve seen it bring joy, happiness and relief to clients who hadn\'t felt those things in a long time after an injury.

I\'m a father of five. I like that job best of all. Like every self-respecting lawyer, I\'m a closet novelist working toward publication.

Our firm sponsors lunch one day per week, Fridays, at the St. Vincent de Paul soup kitchen in Kingston. We don\'t let our charity dollars do all the work - we attend in person to serve lunch. We sponsor the Spinal Cord Injury Ontario - Peer Mentorship Program for both the Kingston and Ottawa regions. Prior to law, I was a certified teacher. I continue to be a member of the Ontario College of Teachers. I enjoy teaching and often speak at injury seminars, law association conferences, and Queens University in both the Law School and School of Rehabilitation Therapy.

• Law Society of Nunavut | Member
  Litigation Counsel of America | Member
  Ontario Brain Injury Association | Supporter
  American Association for Justice | Member
  Ontario Trial Lawyers Association  |1994 | Member
  Frontenac Law Association | Member
  Leeds Grenville Law Association | Member
  County of Carleton Law Association | Member
  

• Certified Specialist in Civil Litigation | Law Society of Ontario
  Best Lawyers | Recognized Since 2020 | Personal Injury Litigation, Insurance Law
  Ontario Trial Lawyers Association | Distinguished Service Award | 2004
  Litigation Counsel of America | Invited Member

• NO FEES UNTIL WE WIN.
  Ted has successfully represented injured clients and their families in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, Ontario Court of Appeal, Financial Services Commission of Ontario and before the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board. He has successfully managed jury trials in several Ontario counties and cities from Parry Sound to Toronto to Ottawa.

• St. Marthe v. O’Connor, 2019 ONSC 1585 (CanLII)
  A cyclist riding properly on the roadway is struck by a car emerging from a gas station, and thrown to the ground. He sustained a muscular injury to his back that prevented him from working in heavy construction. The court found it reasonable that he ought to retrain for lighter work and awarded compensation totally more than $200,000 made up of pain and suffering damages as well as loss of income. As the defendant's insurance company took a hard-line approach to negotiating settlement, the court awarded Mr. St. Marthe more than $300,000 in legal fees.

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