The WSIB is the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board. It is the body to turn to if you are injured at work, particularly in the industrial sector. Not all workers are covered by the WSIB, but many are.
The WSIB is primarily focused on physical injuries suffered at work and generally seeks to return you to the workplace when it is safe to do so. Sometimes you get wage losses in the interim, but not always.
The WSIB is not responsible for and does not provide compensation for people who are injured outside of work, even if it affects those employees’ ability to perform their former job.
The WSIB also covers some mental health issues such as psychotraumatic disability and chronic pain and and has just begun providing limited coverage for chronic stress claims that arise after January 1, 2018.
Guy Hunter has succeeded in obtaining:
- over 22 months of wage losses for an illegal Mexican worker who lost part of two fingers in his second week of work at a construction site
- over 18 months of wage losses for a man injured at work with low back injury which was originally denied because the employer lied about whether the worker had produced medical notes of the injury
Guy Hunter can help you assess what your best options are if you were injured or suffer from an illness that might have arisen in part or wholly from the workplace.
Guy Hunter has assisted people with WSIB claims in the following areas:
| Initial Entitlement Loss of Earnings (LOE)Future Economic Loss Awards (FEL)Repetitive Strain InjuriesWorkers with no legal right to work in Ontario | UnemployabilityNon-Economic Loss Awards (NEL)Chronic Pain ClaimsDishonest Employers |
Theoretically, WSIB claims are to be handled quickly and without the need for a legal representative.
Practically, the process and WSIB policies are complicated and it appears the majority of WSIB staff make actually getting compensation very laborious and time consuming. It can often require many Notices of Objection (like mini internal appeals) to get you your actual wage losses recovered.
It may greatly assist to have a lawyer or paralegal help you with legal and factual arguments if you get negative decisions along the way.
Guy Hunter does assist people with WSIB claims but does not specialize in WSIB claims.
Guy Hunter is primarily an employment law lawyer who focuses on wrongful dismissal and human rights issues that arise in the workplace. He also practices general civil litigation and family law.
Nevertheless, Guy Hunter does take on WSIB matters sometimes, and has had good success, but often with a great deal of effort, which may not make sense in certain cases given the amounts of money at stake.
If you are unionized, your union should advance your WSIB claim for you. Generally, Guy Hunter does not represent unionized employees.
Guy Hunter encourages you to contact a lawyer or office specialized in WSIB matters, in most cases.
REFERRALS:
If you want a lawyer to help you with a WSIB matter, Guy Hunter recommends you contact:
Richard Fink of
Fink and Borenstein
466 Dupont St, Toronto, ON M5R 1W6
(416) 537-0108
Fink and Borenstein can help you with all WSIB and WSIAT appeals as well as applications for CPP disability.
If you are content to use a licensed paralegal, Guy Hunter recommends
Ottavio Iacopini of
OJI Legal Services Professional Corporation
3500 Dufferin Street, Suite 201
Toronto, Ontario
M3K 1N2
(647) 342-7684
Ottavio Iacopini is a Licensed Paralegal, licensed by the Law Society of Upper Canada (LSUC). He also holds a diploma as a Safety Engineer Technologist. Ottavio Iacopini represents injured workers in matters relating to Claims, Appeals and Severance matters for Workplace Safety & Insurance Board (WSIB), Workplace Safety & Appeals Tribunal(WSIAT), Human Rights Tribunals, as well as Canada Pension Plan Disability Benefits. Services are provided in English, Italian & Spanish.
OJI Legal Services Professional Corporation is owned and operated by Ottavio Iacopini.
OJI Legal Services Professional Corporation’s website provides the following 10 steps for filing a claim:
FILING THE CLAIM
If you have suffered a workplace injury, or developed an illness in and due to the course of your employment, you are eligible to file a WSIB claim. It is key that you take the proper steps to make sure your claim is handled properly:
- Report the injury to your employer immediately
- Get immediate medical treatment and report it as a WSIB injury at the medical facility
- Obtain contact information of any witnesses
- Complete a Form 6
- Hire a legal representative licensed by the Law Society.
- Keep a journal of all your symptoms, medications, appointments, and conversations regarding the workplace injury.
- Keep in contact with your employer about your functional abilities and modified work
- Cooperate with the WSIB procedure, including any medical appointments they may schedule.
- Keep seeking medical assistance from your medical professionals, your family doctor and any specialists he or she may send you to
- Appeal any decisions within the WSIB time limits
Generally speaking a WSIB claim begins with the employee filling out a form 6 or the employer filling out a form 7 and a doctor filling out a form 8.
There are many stages to a WSIB claim and often it takes an extremely long time to go through the various hurdles that are required to get reasonable and proper compensation.
In certain circumstances, a WSIB claim may well be the best way to pursue your interests, but that is not always the case.
You should discuss your options with a lawyer or paralegal before filling out the Form 6, especially if it is not clear that the injury arose from the workplace. Guy Hunter provides a free half hour consultation. STANDARD FORM DOCUMENT
One of the benefits of a WSIB claim is that if it is successful you could conceivably get some compensation right through until you are 65 years of age from the date of your injury. There are many hurdles the WSIB forces you to go through in order to collect ongoing compensation.
When every attempt is made to provide helpful information in this website, you may not rely on the information above as legal advice.