S.J.

I grew up in a home where whenever we complained that something wasn’t fair, my mother always said, “Who promised you life would be fair?” Well life sure wasn’t fair to her. My father got sick and was unable to work when my mom was forty, and died when she was forty-six. She raised three kids and at sixty-three was finally thinking about retiring and doing things just for herself when things yet again went about as wrong as they could.

Driving on the 401 to visit her three children in Toronto and attend her niece’s engagement party, she was in a life-threatening, catastrophic car accident. The driver of the vehicle slammed into the back of an 18-wheeler at 125 km per hour. My mother, sitting in the passenger seat, was in a coma for over two months. She regained consciousness only to be a very seriously brain injured and physically challenged middle-aged woman.

For the three of us, the mother we knew was gone and we knew we were in for a long and difficult haul, both with what ever level of recovery she was going to make and in terms of accessing the funds to enable us to do the things we had to for her.

We were at a loss. The social worker at the hospital gave us the names of several law firms that dealt with insurance companies and car accident victims. Who do we call, how do we judge? “Oh, they are all good, ” we were told. The only candid piece of advice we got when asking around was, “Bogoroch is a mensch.” (Mensch is a Yiddish term for a fine person who always does the morally right thing). After hearing that, it was Bogoroch and Associates our family turned to in what was truly our time of need.

One thinks of all the lawyer jokes one has heard and goes to their first visit with a lawyer with a heavy heart. The last thing you want to be doing is worrying about suing insurance companies for enough money to make sure your mother has the care she now needs at the ripe old age of sixty-three.

I could not have been more pleasantly surprised. Richard Bogoroch and Heidi Brown were two of the brightest, kindest and most professional people I have ever had the honour to deal with. They understood our pain and were able to make our legal dealings as easy as possible under the circumstances, and the circumstances have been difficult ones.

It was truly inspiring seeing our team at work. Our needs were well balanced with the realities we were facing and because of Richard and Heidi’s brilliant legal minds and incredible effort on our behalf we were able to settle without having to go to court, which was a relief beyond anyone’s imagining.

Richard was able to secure a settlement that will not only allow us to sleep nights but will ensure my mother a quality of life that she would not have had without his and Heidi’s efforts.

It is hard to convey the warmth and professionalism of all those associated with the firm. They become family to you over a long journey. We cannot turn back the hands of time but at least we have had the honour of having what I know is the best legal team anyone could imagine.

It is with much gratitude and sincere thanks to all those at Bogoroch and Associates that I am able to say, I still have my mother.

– S.J.