New book by Ottawa law firm lifts the lid on personal injury industry playbook
Mistakes, myths and missed opportunities:
Revealing new book by Ottawa law firm gives Ontarians
play-by-play for taking on the system of personal injury claims
Road to Recovery (2022) by Brenda Hollingsworth and Richard Auger
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Press kit attached
Ottawa, ON (January 24th, 2022) – A ‘how-to’ book by an Ottawa-based legal power couple promises to lift the lid on the personal injury law field and help Ontarians avoid high turnover ‘settlement mills’.
Written by Brenda Hollingsworth and husband Richard Auger of Auger Hollingsworth, Road to Recovery (2022) is a play-by-play for victims of car accidents, slips and falls or any other personal injury accident. The book is available from Amazon on January 24, 2022.
Over the past 25 years the couple have practiced personal injury law, they say they’ve seen far too many seriously hurt people miss out on much-needed financial support because of early mistakes, misunderstandings or taking the wrong advice, usually from family or the internet. In some cases, they sign up with so-called “settlement mills”.
“The words ‘I’ll see you in court!’ are uttered more in Hollywood movies than in real legal cases in Canada. Actually, 95 percent of personal injury claims are settled out of court and never go before a judge or jury,” says co-author, Brenda Hollingsworth.
“There are personal injury law firms that use a lot of advertising to get as many clients as possible, and then they settle claims quickly but at a lower value. Known as settlement mills … they don’t always practice law. They refer your file out for a fee and reap the benefit of a quick settlement and move on to the next case. In short, their specialty is signing up clients, not prosecuting claims,” she says in the book.
Containing chapters like “The First Meeting: Come as You Are and Give It to Us Straight”, the tell-all book is part reassurance, part how-to guide, says co-author, Richard Auger.
“Mistakes about who to report the incident to, when to do it and what should be shared are really common. That’s the rationale behind this book: we wanted to share what we know so that before a single word is said, the client knows exactly when the process will be,” he says.
There are few surprising disclosures, too. If you’re awarded $100,000 for a car accident by an Ontario court, you’ll only pocket $58,496.50. A deductible of $41,503 .50 is automatically given to the insurance company. Even more shocking is that if the award is made by a jury, they are not told there is a deductible and so believe the full amount is going to the claimant.
“Injured people are at a real disadvantage during the claim process because you don’t have nearly as much information as the insurance companies. If you don’t know the system, you are vulnerable to getting less than you deserve. We wrote this book to level the playing field, so people like you are treated fairly.”
Auger says that between a system often skewed against the injured, misinformation and a cap of just $410,000 for pain and suffering in Ontario, claimants need all the information they can get. Road to Recovery by Brenda Hollingsworth and Richard Auger is available from Amazon from January 24, 2022.
For more information or an interview, please contact:
Brenda Hollingsworth
Auger Hollingsworth Professional Corporation
613 233-4529
