On May 20th, MEA Forensic’s experts in slips and falls attend the Get a Grip on Defending Sidewalk Slips and Trips webinar, Canadian Defence Lawers’ first in a series on Municipal Law. Our firm is proud to sponsor this educational session.
Defending municipalities against sidewalk personal injury claims involves a host of unique legal and evidentiary issues. This program, chaired by Sheila Handler of Shillington McCall LLP, will provide an overview of the legislative and procedural landscape for municipal sidewalk claims in Ontario and offer strategic advice on how to maximize the statutory defences available to municipal clients, with presentations by Erin Farrell, Partner at Gowling WLG, and Kyle Magee, Senior Counsel at Clyde & Co Canada LLP. The program will also include practice management tips on collecting evidence and managing the discovery process in the municipal context.
Dr. Ben Elkin and Mr. Dennis Chimich will attend the session from their respective home offices in Toronto and Vancouver. Ben currently chairs the ASTM F13 Committee on Pedestrian/Walkway Safety and Footwear, and is working to improve the protocols for friction measurement devices called tribometers. He and Dennis are actively involved in the study of walkway tribometers, the portable devices commonly used by experts to measure the slip resistance of a surface at the scene of a fall. Their latest published research suggests different reasons for friction values measured by walkway tribometers to be misinterpreted in forensic reports – find them here:
Variability of walkway tribometer measurements
Variability of friction measurements using three common walkway tribometers
Uncertainty in tribometer measurements
Attendees who leave the presentation with question regarding the evidence used by experts in slips and trips cases, the reliability of a friction measurement, or the type of questions that can be answered by a biomechanical expert’s analysis, are welcome to reach out.
Canadian Defence Lawyers (CDL) in a Canadian-wide organization representing the interests of civil defence lawyers. They offer members from coast to coast to coast opportunities to unite over common issues.