Personal injury highly complex, nuanced, and specialized — and Neinstein has the required expertise

Greg Greenberg  00:00:06 

Hello and welcome to Canadian Lawyer TV. I'm Greg Greenberg from Key Media. And today we're speaking with Jeffrey Neinstein, Partner and Head of the Personal Injury Group at Neinstein Personal Injury Lawyers, the firm was recently named one of Canadian Lawyer's, Top Personal Injury Boutiques. And we're going to hear from Jeffrey and what he believes sets Neinstein apart, year after year after year. Jeffrey, thanks very much for being here with us today. 

Jeff Neinstein  00:00:30 

Thank you, Greg. Pleasure being here again. 

Greg Greenberg  00:00:33 

So Jeffrey, we live in a fast paced and ever changing world. Can you tell me how your firm has kept up with the constant changes, not just in legislation, but in technology as well as the economy? 

Jeff Neinstein  00:00:46 

Well, as everyone knows, the world is rapidly changing before our eyes and for, for everybody. And for us, it was super important for the firm to diversify the practice, we we expanded the scope of our personal injury cases, which over the years was most of motor vehicle accidents. And then we expanded our medical malpractice department over the last 10 years. But arguably the most impactful is that we've made significant strides in developing a very robust mass tort practice, which is different than the class action. But the medical malpractice perspective, in particular, that department has allowed this for valuable trial experience, which you in our industry get these days, we've had, I think, 14 or so trials in the last three or four years, and everyone at this firm has been able to participate and learn key litigation and trial experience from the mass tort department. This has allowed us to expand it to areas that, in my opinion, is some of the most bored work that we've ever done. And in particular, most notably is the social media claim that we've launched, of late, the firm has been retained by the largest school boards of Ontario, claiming against the social media giants for disrupting the students Fundamental Rights Education. And this without a doubt, I mean, this affects everybody. And it's arguably the most important project that we've ever taken. I think because it does affect everyone, I think everyone should have their eyes on this, there is a website designated for the public, called schools for social media change.ca. And I think everyone should take a look at this. It outlines what this case is and why it's so important.  

Greg Greenberg  00:02:29 

And nine seam is consistently recognized for its deep expertise in this space. So why is expertise in the field of personal injury law so important? It's all in the details, right? 

Jeff Neinstein  00:02:39 

It's a very important question. And it's an accordion answer, because years back, when I started, almost 25 years ago, there were a lot of lawyers doing very different areas of law. And right now, what we do a personal injury, it is so nuanced and specialized, that it is an error to that we'd be subject matter experts, we need to understand both the law and the medicine, and it's very highly complex. Every case, it's critical to understand not just the fault and the liability and the negligence, but the nuances and understanding medical medical causation. We have to argue damages. And all of this is complex medicine. In addition to being a subject matter expert, it allows us to assist applying its advice and solutions and challenges to to issues that arise throughout the litigation process, which could be five years we we have to be problem solvers and crisis managers. We just simply couldn't accomplish this without being a subject matter expert. And, you know, as I set it out to trial experience, I think in the last year, we've had four or five trials, along with four appeals, and 14 plus trials in the last three or four years. It is an enormous commitment. We financed every one of these cases. So let's it's absolutely important and critical that everyone in our in our firm are subject matter experts in this area. 

Greg Greenberg  00:04:03 

And what can you tell us about the culture at Neinstein? Because every firm is different. What role does culture play in setting your firm apart? 

Jeff Neinstein  00:04:11 

That's a good question as well, because you know a lot of new clients prospective clients ask us about that. There's a lot of good lawyers out there, not just at our firm. And so what is different about our firm and one of the things that I believe that sets us apart is the culture here. We held our staff from top to bottom, we are like minded people. Everyone here has an interest in medicine, we have an interest in law. But more importantly, we all care about people. We're not mechanical lawyers with it. We really have to be empathetic and understand people and be able to speak to people in a different way than say a commercial lawyer or a criminal Lord might have. In addition, we all have common goals. So we have to be you know, a fearless approach to to the cases that we take gone except that passionate, the David versus Goliath bad battles. You know, the culture and success at this firm that we've enjoyed has given us a platform and a confidence to take God literally the bulkiness of the world, we take on the largest insurance company of the country, and the CMPA, which is the Canadian Medical Protective Association, who has basically limitless funds to defect. And then, as mentioned, we are now taking on the social media giants of the world, which are some of the largest companies in on the globe right now. But all of this is obviously very meaningful work. It is risky litigation. And as I said, we finance every one of these cases. But everyone at this firm can, you know, walk tall and proud and knowing that we're making a difference, and that we will have a footprint that will be lasting. 

Greg Greenberg  00:05:53 

And finally, this is far from the first time that Neinstein has made this list. Can you share your thoughts on why the firm is a perennial recipient of the Canadian Top 10 Boutiques accolade. 

Jeff Neinstein  00:06:05 

We strive for excellence, we refuse to be mediocre. It's that simple. We we ensure client satisfaction and that the service at this turn is going to be the absolute best it could be from reception to the clerks to the lawyers. We all demand at every touch point that we want to make sure that the client experience is going to be as positive as it can be. These are victims that are traumatized and lightest is changed, we want to make sure that the client experience at least is going to be as positive as possible because their lives have been upended. I think we built an amazing team of apathetic and passionate and very smart advocates. We care for our clients, as I said, and and we all better arts and soul to every case. And I think at the end of the day, our success. For me, at least it relates to the clients outcome and oftentimes that's going to have more to do with their recovery and their quality of life than it will with dollars and cents. Then again, for me when a case is resolved, success is going to be when a client is able to shake my hand and say thank you for making a difference. 

Greg Greenberg  00:07:15 

Jeffrey, it's been a pleasure chatting with you. Congratulations again on being named one of Canadian Lawyer's, Top Personal Injury Boutiques and sharing your insight with our viewers. 

Jeff Neinstein  00:07:24 

Thank you so much. Pleasure being here.  

Greg Greenberg  00:07:26 

And thanks to our audience for joining us today. Make sure you stay tuned for more award spotlights. I'm Greg Greenberg for Canadian Lawyer TV.