Online service helps personal injury victims calculate potential settlements

Tech wiz helping personal injury victims A local computer wizard is helping victims of personal injury navigate the complicated legal system. Jay Rosove has the story.

Edmonton — Mike Zouhri was seriously injured when his vehicle was hit by a drunk driver last year.

“I’m still undergoing a lot of treatment for my issues, many of which are going to last me for the rest of my life,” Zouhri told CTV News Edmonton.

Once he got through his initial recovery, he decided to pursue legal action.

“It was frustrating and slow and the court system, the court system and the legal services industry is just so broken.”

Zouhri, who’s not a lawyer, took matters into his own hands.

“I actually went down to the law library and I read about how to settle my own case and learned the process in order to do so. And when I did that I actually learned that I can automate it.”

He used his tech background to build an online service, now known as Painworth.

“He’s identified a need that we have in the legal system,” said Matthew Blimke, a lawyer and Painworth Partner. “It is opaque in too many cases. In too many cases, it’s slow. In too many cases it’s expensive.”

The service uses a special algorithm to access former injury cases, helping injury victims learn what type of settlement they might be owed.

“After they answer a few simple questions, we give them access to tools and then provide them with an assessment on how much their settlement is probably worth and some simple next steps that they can do,” Zouhri said.

Launched back in November, the site is still in its beta phase, but Zhouri says it's already helped users calculate $10 million in potential claims.. He hasn't ruled out the monetization of Painwort, but for now it's free.

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Jay Rosove