Managing partner Charles Gluckstein on what injured Ontarians are up against right now
One of the most telling numbers in Ontario personal injury law right now is 8 per cent. That’s how often claimants at the Licence Appeal Tribunal (LAT) succeeded in adjudicated cases in 2024, down from 33 per cent in the tribunal’s first year of operation, according to a report commissioned by the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association.
That number is not an anomaly. Despite the promise of timely decisions produced by a process simple enough that injured people wouldn’t need a lawyer to pursue benefits or handle disputed benefit claims, the success rate for those before the tribunal has been on a downward trajectory since inception.
For Charles Gluckstein, managing partner of Gluckstein Personal Injury Lawyers, it’s a statistic that informs how his firm approaches the files it takes on. It’s also, he adds, one data point among several that paints a sombre picture of the state of personal injury law.
“The system has moved away from the very people it was meant to protect,” Gluckstein says. “We work on the assumption that the system won't fix itself.”
There is some progress at the LAT, at least on paper. Active files dropped to approximately 9,200 by the end of fiscal 2024-25, down from more than 16,000 in 2021-22. The LAT also declared its backlog cleared in October 2023. But a cleared backlog, Gluckstein says, “isn’t the same as speedy justice” — and it’s not what the firm’s clients have experienced.
The tribunal's own guidance indicates that a case conference usually happens 3 to 5 months after filing, a hearing 4 to 8 months after that, and the decision within 60 to 120 days. For someone with a brain injury, for example, who has been denied attendant care, a year is a very long time.
“Some still wait more than two years from the filing of a dispute to a final decision,” Gluckstein adds. “Imagine the impact that this has, and the setback it creates, for people who require timely treatment that the insurer has denied.”
In response, the firm adopted “certain means and methods” to deliver on its primary mandate: ensuring clients get needed treatment and support while the process runs, not after it ends.
“Delay is the insurer’s best tool,” Gluckstein says. “We plan every file with that in mind.”
The July 2026 amendments to the Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule (SABS) changed the coverage calculation on every new motor vehicle file. Medical, rehabilitation and attendant care benefits remain mandatory. Income replacement, non-earner, caregiver, housekeeping, and death and funeral benefits are now optional, available only if a driver had specifically purchased them.
“This is the biggest change in years,” says Gluckstein. “And I would venture an educated guess that many, if not most, drivers either have no idea it’s occurred, or how the changes will impact them.”
The optional benefits also cover a narrower group. Where purchased, they apply only to the named insured, their spouse, dependants and listed drivers. A pedestrian or cyclist struck by a fully insured vehicle may find they have no claim to them at all.
On intake, every new motor vehicle file now starts with a full coverage audit: the client’s own policy, any homeowner’s or employer’s policy, and the at-fault driver’s coverage.
“The tort claim now matters more than ever,” Gluckstein says. “For many injured persons that may be the only route to recovering lost income and other expenses.”
In serious injury cases, the catastrophic impairment (CAT) designation is often where the real contest begins. A CAT finding lifts the combined limit for medical, rehabilitation and attendant care benefits from $65,000 to $1 million, and insurers push back hard.
The LAT has looked closely at CAT methodology this year. In one 2026 decision, a 55 per cent whole-person impairment rating was rejected because the expert used assessment tools the SABS does not expressly authorize. In another, a claimant’s travel, social activities and part-time work were used to move impairment findings from “marked” down to “moderate.” The LAT did penalize one insurer for holding a brain-injured claimant’s attendant care to $3,000 per month for six months after receiving a CAT application.
“The CAT designation is the turning point in a serious case,” Gluckstein says, noting the firm builds potential CAT files from the earliest practical point, relying on experts who follow the Guides precisely.
The firm also doesn’t treat LAT decisions as the final word. This year the Divisional Court overturned a CAT impairment denial for a brain-injured carpenter because the tribunal’s reasons were “largely conclusory.”
“When the reasoning is questionable, we will consider the advisability of an appeal,” Gluckstein adds.
For a firm that believes the system won’t fix itself and executes accordingly, the practical response starts before a dispute is filed — and goes well beyond the lawsuit itself. In what Gluckstein calls “full-circle care,” client liaisons and an in-house medical specialist support clients with daily life. They also ensure clients get help with rehabilitation and treatment plans, because “a denied benefit shouldn’t mean a client stops receiving treatment,” Gluckstein stresses.
The firm also runs the accident benefits file and the tort claim as one strategy. A strong LAT record on the “any occupation” test or a CAT finding carries weight when income loss is valued in court. Then there’s technology, which tracks every disputed benefit claim and its two-year limitation period.
“We can’t afford to miss one,” Gluckstein says. “And when insurers drag their feet, we push for penalty awards.”
Named to Canadian Lawyer’s list of top personal injury boutiques every year since 2013, the firm also holds a Tier 1 ranking nationally in personal injury litigation from Best Law Firms Canada. It’s recognition rooted in a simple belief that’s guided the firm since Gluckstein’s father first opened the doors in 1962: injured people deserved someone willing to fight for them.
“The rules have changed many times, and they’ll undoubtedly keep changing; the fundamentals of our mission, however, have not changed,” Gluckstein says. “We restore dignity to people who’ve lost almost everything, and we stay with them throughout their recovery and beyond.”
