Don’t get lost in translation!

In a personal injury action, and even in a claim for accident bene-fits, the compensation you receive is based on a consideration of the impact the accident has had on your life, how it has affected your edu-cation,    training,     work

potential, family situation,

social and recreational activities.

On a practical level, the perceptions of the insurance adjuster, arbitrator, judge, or jury of these factors will influence your compensation.  Most often, these people will not be from the same background and culture as you, and may make judgments and assumptions that negatively affect your compensation, unless your representative understands your cultural context, identify those misperceptions, and communicate the full extent of the effects of your impairments on your life to them.

Some practical examples:

Anti-Immigrant Prejudice

Most of the lawyers at our firm are first and second generation immigrants themselves. We understand that people coming to this country often find themselves working jobs for which they are significantly over-qualified.  Many insurance adjusters will assume that a forty-year old person who is a cleaner or taxi driver in Canada will always only have low-paying jobs, and will only offer compensation for future losses accordingly. We know the importance of showing how an immigrant person’s employment trajectory differs from those who started there working lives in this country, and demonstrating your potential for better future earning capacity.

Similarly, many insurance lawyers have no understanding of the devastating emotional toll a disruption in your ability to earn a living can be after you have uprooted yourself from your family, culture, and social support networks in your home country in order to seek better economic prospects for your self and your children in Canada. We know how important your ability to work is in that context and why disabilities that prevent you from working can cause be more traumatic than might otherwise be expected.

Language

One of our lawyers witnessed a situation in court in which an accused of Latin American origin, on trial for assault, gave evidence in Spanish that “He hit me and knocked me down. I got up, and he hit me again.”   Because the verb pararse has different meanings in Spain and Latin America, this was translated by the very competent court interpreter trained in European Spanish as, “He hit me and knocked me down.  I stopped, and he hit me again.”  This was being taken as an admission that the accused had in fact been fighting (because he “stopped”) when in fact he had said nothing of the sort.  Our lawyer, though not involved in the proceedings, was able to intervene and correct the misinterpretation, and the accused was acquitted.

Our firm makes the effort to offer you services in your own language.  When formal interpretation is required, we endeavour to obtain translators from your region or dialect, who will be able to faithfully express your meaning.

Relationships with Authorities

A client of ours grew up in a country in which the police were a corrupt and abusive force that routinely resorted to violence and arbitrary killing with impunity.  He learned early in life that when the police tell you to do something, you do it and don’t ask questions.  In Canada, he was involved in a car accident.  He was issued a traffic ticket at the scene for making an improper turn, when in fact the other vehicle had run a red light.  The police officer told him how to go pay the ticket, and the client did so, without giving it much thought.  In the resulting civil action, his payment of the ticket was taken by the defence as an admission of making the wrong turn.  Our firm was able to explain our client’s deference to authorities and settle the claim on the basis of the other driver being totally at fault.