Personal Injury · Family Law
Merritt & Hale represents people through serious injury and family transition in Toronto. We build every file as if it is going to verdict, because the firm on the other side is counting on the fact that most never do.
Plate I · EstablishingPracticeFour areas
We work in four areas and know each to the floorboards. When a case falls outside them, we will tell you, and point you somewhere better.
Catastrophic harm that changes how a person lives, works, and is cared for. We build the medical and economic record the rest of a life depends on.
Tort claims and accident benefits after a collision, including the denied and underpaid claims that insurers hope you will not contest.
Cases that turn on what a competent clinician should have done. We work with the right experts and read the chart line by line.
Separation, parenting, and the division of a shared life. Handled with discretion when it can be, and with resolve when it cannot.
The RecordSelected results
A settlement is never only a figure. Behind each of these is a household that had to be made whole, and an insurer that did not want to pay until it had to.
Each matter turns on its own facts. Results are shared with client consent and do not promise a similar outcome in any other case.
Most firms settle because they have to. We settle because we are ready not to.
ApproachHow we work
Plate II · The workMany injury firms have never argued a day in court and quietly settle for whatever is offered. We prepare for trial from the first week. Insurers know which firms mean it, and the difference shows up in the number on the cheque.
The lawyer who sits across from you at the first meeting is the lawyer who argues your case. We keep the docket deliberately small so that no client is ever handed down to whoever is free.
Injury cases are taken on contingency. You pay nothing up front, and nothing at all unless we recover for you. The expert reports and court costs are ours to advance while the case is built.
If a claim is weak, you will hear it in the first conversation, not after a year of fees. Your time and your hope are worth more to us than a file we do not believe we can win.
CounselThe partners
When a partner’s name is on the firm, it is on every file too. Diane and Marcus built Merritt & Hale to practise the way they believe the law should be practised.
Founding Partner · Personal Injury
A settlement has to carry someone for the rest of a life.
Diane has spent her career on the plaintiff side of catastrophic injury, where the medicine is complex and the stakes are a person’s independence. She is known for the kind of trial preparation that settles cases before the courtroom doors ever open.
Founding Partner · Family Law
A separation done well is one the children barely remember.
Marcus handles separation and parenting matters with a steadiness that clients lean on during the hardest year of their lives. He resolves quietly where he can and litigates without hesitation where a child’s interests demand it.
In their wordsA client
They treated my mother’s case like it was the only one in the building. When the insurer finally moved, it was because Diane was ready for trial and they knew it.
Daughter of a client · Catastrophic injury · Scarborough, 2023
QuestionsBefore you call
No honest lawyer can put a number on it in the first meeting, and you should be wary of one who does. The value turns on the injury, the long-term care and income loss, and the evidence we can prove. What we can tell you early is whether you have a claim worth pursuing and what it will take to build it.
For injury matters you pay nothing up front. Our fee is an agreed percentage of what we recover, set out in a written agreement before we begin. If there is no recovery, there is no fee, and the costs of experts and court filings are ours to advance along the way.
Most serious injury cases run between one and three years, because building the medical record properly takes time and rushing it leaves money on the table. We move as quickly as the evidence allows and keep you current at every stage rather than going quiet for months.
Most cases resolve before trial. The reason they resolve well is that we prepare as though they will not, and the other side can tell the difference. If a fair settlement never comes, we are ready to put your case in front of a judge.
For injury matters, nothing. The first conversation is free and confidential, and you leave it knowing where you stand. Family law consultations are arranged when you call so we can set aside the right amount of time for your situation.
Plate III · The roomRequest a consultation
A first conversation is confidential and without obligation. For injury matters there is no cost to meet, and no fee unless we recover for you.