Darcy R. Merkur

In addition to being certified by the Law Society of Ontario as a specialist in Civil Litigation, Darcy is a certified Brain Injury Specialist by the Brain Injury Association of America, has been recognized by his peers in both the Canadian Legal Lexpert® Directory as a repeatedly recommended leading lawyer in Personal Injury and in Best Lawyers in Canada® in the field of Personal Injury Litigation. As well, Darcy was the proud recipient of the 2011 Dean Edgell Award, presented by the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association for Darcy's significant contribution and excellence in legal writing, continuing legal education, and leadership activities. His reputation as a leader in the personal injury field was acknowledged in a Toronto Sun article on auto insurance where Darcy was referred to as "one of the province's leading personal injury lawyers".

Darcy handles a multitude of complex, serious personal injury cases on behalf of accident victims and their families and has had some great successes. In a personal injury jury trial involving an adolescent acquired brain injury accident victim, Darcy helped achieve such an outstanding result for the accident victim that the trial judge made a rare premium award to him and his co-counsel. In doing so, the trial judge noted that Darcy had “gained a great deal of expertise in personal injury litigation”.

While most of Darcy's work involves assisting Ontario motor vehicle accident victims, Darcy has had the privilege of assisting hundreds of victims of sexual abuse. His exceptional work on behalf of victims of sexual abuse was recognized by an Adjudicator in the Aboriginal Residential School Independent Assessment Process. In the decision, the Adjudicator wrote that "the professionalism, advocacy and solicitor-client relationship displayed by Mr. Merkur during the course of the hearing was exemplary."

Darcy has also built a reputation as an innovator in the personal injury field. He has designed a revolutionary computer program for use in quantifying personal injury claims and his product is now available for sale through the legal publisher Carswell under the title “The Ontario Personal Injury Damages Calculator”. A short demonstration of the Personal Injury Damages Calculator is available here. The program can also be used to quantify the value of past and future accident benefits available under the Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule (SABS), such as attendant care benefits, income replacement benefits, medical and rehabilitation benefits and other benefits available in cases of catastrophic impairment. The program is instrumental in accurately evaluating compensation in car accident cases, slip and fall cases and other negligence cases.

Darcy passionately supports the rights of accident victims. Through his involvement with the Brain Injury Society of Toronto and, in particular, the Brain Injury Awareness Month planning committee, he tries to help raise public awareness of the difficulties faced by head injury victims.

Class Action:
Darcy was instrumental in the multi-billion dollar Aboriginal Residential School class action settlement -- the largest class action settlement in Canadian history.

Practice Areas:
- Personal Injury
- Class Action